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  • Terms of Service

    Date of Last Modification: (Dec 8, 2021)

    Welcome to our website that is intended for your personal and non-commercial use only. Soul Serial LLC, a District of Columbia corporation (the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our” ), owns and operates the website, https:// www.soulserial.com (the “Site”). As further described below the Company allows users (each, a “User”, “you” or “your”) to access, create, upload and share his/her own text-based original stories, commentaries, opinions, essays, poems, articles, or comments (individually the “Story” and collectively the “Stories”) or upload and share his/her comments with regard to the Story and/or Stories of other Users of the Site and perform any other related activities as are enabled by the functionality of the services that the Company offers on the Site, from time to time, hereinafter known as the “Services”). Please note that you should not upload any photos, illustrations, logos or designs as part of any Story.

    By continuing to browse and use the Site, you agree to comply with and be bound by the following terms of use, which together with our privacy policy (see link in Section 3 below) govern the Site and the Services. If you disagree with any of these terms of service, please do not use the Site or any of the Services.

    TERMS AND CONDITIONS

    1. Agreement

    This is an agreement (the “Agreement”) between you, as the User, and the Company, as the Owner of the Site, containing the terms and conditions that govern your access to and your conduct with regard to the use of the Site, the Services, their functionality and their contents.

    Before using the Site or the Services, please read the Agreement carefully. By clicking on the “I AGREE” button, you expressly acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms of the Agreement.

    2. Modification of the Agreement

    The Company has the right to modify, revise and update the Agreement from time to time. All changes are effective immediately when the updated Agreement is posted on the Site. If substantial changes to the Agreement (as determined by the Company in its sole discretion) are made, the Company will notify the registered users of such changes by email. You should check the Agreement frequently to ensure that you are aware of any changes, as they are binding on Users as soon as they are posted. Your continued use of the Site and/or the Services, following the posting of the updated Agreement shall be construed as an acceptance and agreement by you to the changes to the Agreement.

    3. Company’s Privacy Policy

    The Company’s privacy policy, available at https://soulserial.com/privacy (the “Privacy Policy”), describes the collection, use and disclosure of data and information (including usage data) by the Company in connection with the Site and the Services. The Company may automatically collect personal information about Users and their use and navigation of the Site and/or the Services. All such information is subject to the Privacy Policy. By using the Site and/or the Services, you consent to all actions taken by the Company with respect to your personal information in compliance with the Privacy Policy and legal requirements. The Privacy Policy, as updated by the Company from time to time is hereby incorporated into this Agreement, and you agree to the collection, use, and disclosure practices described therein.

    4. Minimum Age

    Any User, living in a country in the European Union, must be at least 18 years old, or such older age as may be legally required in his/her country, to register for or use the Services. Any User living in any other country outside the European Union must be at least 13 years old, or such older age as may be legally required in his/her country, to register for or use the Services. If a User is under the required age, he/she must not use the Services even if the laws of the country where the User lives, do not prohibit such use, UNLESS that User’s parent or legal guardian agrees, on behalf of the underaged User, to be bound by the Agreement and the Privacy Policy. By accessing and using the Site and/or the Services, a User represents that he/she is of the minimum required age as described above and if not, that his/her parent or legal guardian has agreed to the Agreement and the Privacy Policy on behalf of the User.

    5. User’s Account

    No one will be able to browse through the Site or use the Services without registering as a user for an account. Upon registration, a User will be required to provide certain personal information and that information will be governed by the Privacy Policy. A User is responsible for all activity on his/her account and for keeping the relevant password confidential. The Company shall not be liable to a User or anyone else with whom the User has shared his/her account information, if the User voluntarily shared that information. The Company may, at any time it deems appropriate, suspend or terminate a User’s account or cease providing the User with all or any part of the Services. The Company will make reasonable efforts to inform the User of such suspension or termination. A User is also entitled to close his/her account at any time. Notwithstanding such closure, the Company may, at its sole discretion, retain on the Site any comments/opinions previously expressed by the User except that his/her identity would be shown as “Anonymous”.

    6. Ownership of Content and Copyright Policy

    (a) The User owns the copyrights to the Stories that the User creates and uploads on the Site and/or through the use of the Services. The User grants the Company a non-exclusive and royalty-free license to publish those Stories on the Site, including related rights like reformatting, distributing, displaying and storing them. The User assumes all risks relating to the publication and display of the Stories uploaded by him/her, including the accuracy or suitability of the information and materials contained in the Stories as well as any third party claims regarding the violation of copyrights or other rights.

    (b) The Site and the Services also contain material that is owned by or licensed to us (the “Company’s Property”). The Company’s Property includes, but is not limited to, the visual design (including logos), layout, appearance and graphics. The Company reserves the right to modify or discontinue the Services or any version(s) thereof at any time in its sole discretion, with or without notice to Users.

    (c) The Company may access, read and disclose, if the Company deems it necessary, any information provided by or belonging to a User, that is required to:

    (i) enforce the Agreement;

    (ii) satisfy any applicable law or governmental request;

    (iii) address technical, fraud or security issues; or

    (iv) protect the Company’s Property, any other property or rights or the safety of the Site and/or the Services, its other Users and the public.

    (d) A User may only upload material that he/she has created and/or the copyright to which is owned by the User and which he/she has the right to upload and share.

    (e) If a copyright owner believes that any material accessible on the Site infringes his/her copyright, such copyright owner may request the removal of that material (or access to it) from the Site by submitting a written notice to the Company in the form prescribed by the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act and which forms part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512) (“DMCA") in accordance with the procedure described below.

    (f) Any notice issued under paragraph (e) above (the “DMCA Notice") must include substantially the following:

    (i) the physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner;

    (ii) identification of the copyrighted work believed to have been infringed or, if the claim involves multiple works on the Site, a representative list of such works;

    (iii) identification of the material that the copyright owner believes to be infringing, in a sufficiently precise manner (e.g., URL address) to enable the Company to locate that material;

    (iv) adequate information by which the Company can contact the owner of the copyright (including the name, postal address, telephone number, and email address);

    (v) a statement that the copyright owner has a good faith belief that the use of the copyrighted material has not been authorized by the copyright owner, his/her agent, or the law;

    (vi) a statement that the information provided in the DMCA Notice is accurate; and

    (vii) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that if the person issuing the DMCA Notice is not the copyright owner, that he/she has been duly authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

    (g) Any DMCA Notice may be filed with the Company by emailing it to admin@soulserial.com. DMCA Notices that do not comply with the requirements of Section 512(c)(3) of the DMCA may not be effective.

    (h) If the person issuing a DMCA Notice knowingly and materially misrepresents that any material or activity on the Site is infringing his/her copyright, that person may be held liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) under Section 512(f) of the DMCA.

    (i) The Company may disclose DMCA Notices to affected users and third-party databases that collect information about copyright takedown notices.

    (j) If a User believes that material posted by the User on the Site was removed or access to it was disabled by mistake or misidentification, such User may file a counter notification with the Company in accordance with the procedure described below.

    (k) Any notice issued under paragraph (j) above (the “Counter Notice") must include substantially the following:

    (i) the User’s physical or electronic signature;

    (ii) identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access disabled;

    (iii) adequate information by which the Company can contact the User who issued the Counter Notice (including the name, postal address, telephone number, and email address);

    (iv) a statement by the User, under penalty of perjury, that he/she has a good faith belief that the material identified in the Counter Notice was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material; and

    (v) a statement that the User will consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the User’s address is located (or if the User resides outside the United States, for any judicial district in which the Site may be available or accessed), and that the User will accept service from the owner of the copyright (or an agent of that copyright owner) that has allegedly been infringed and who issued the relevant DMCA Notice.

    (l) The Company will forward a copy of the Counter Notice that complies with the requirements of paragraph (k) above, to the person who filed the original DMCA Notice. The DMCA authorizes the Company to restore the removed material, if the party who issued the original DMCA Notice does not file legal proceedings against the User who issued the Counter Notice, within ten (10) business days of receiving the copy of the relevant Counter Notice and notifies the Company that such legal proceedings have been filed. If the Company does not receive notice that such proceedings have been filed against the User within the prescribed period of ten (10) business days, the Company may restore the removed material on the Site.

    (m) Any User issuing a Counter Notice, who knowingly and materially misrepresents that any material or activity on the Site was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, may be held liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) under Section 512(f) of the DMCA.

    (n) The Company has the right, at its sole and absolute discretion, to disable and/or terminate the accounts of Users who are repeat infringers of copyright.

    7. Users’ Conduct

    (a) The User agrees:

    (i) that in uploading any Stories on the Site, he/she will not use content/material that is subject to third party intellectual property or proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights unless the User is the owner of such rights or has the permission of their rightful owner to post the content/material and to grant the Company all of the license rights granted herein;

    (ii) not to use material that is unlawful, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic (including, without limitation, child porn or non-consensual (“revenge") porn), obscene, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, violate any law or is otherwise inappropriate;

    (iii) not to use any false or misleading information in connection with the User’s account and acknowledges and hereby agrees that the Company has the absolute right to disable his/her account if it has a profile that the Company, in its sole and absolute discretion, believes is false or misleading;

    (iv) not to license, distribute, copy, modify, publicly perform or display, transmit, publish, edit, adapt, create derivative works from, or otherwise make any unauthorized use of the Company’s Property or make any use of the Site, contents or Services that may have the effect of competing with or displacing the market for “SoulSerial”, the Company, the Site, the Services or any part thereof;

    (v) not to reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code, algorithm, ideas or programs underlying the Company’s Property or do anything that interferes with or damages the proper function of any software, hardware or equipment on the Site, regardless of whom it belongs to;

    (vi) not to obtain or try to obtain any information or materials through any means not intentionally made available to Users through the Services;

    (vii) not to scrape or use any other automated means to access or gather information from the Services or bypass any robot exclusion measures that the Company may put in place;

    (viii) not to use the Company’s Property in a way that might suggest that the Company endorses any product or service that the User is selling or providing or that the User has a business relationship with the Company;

    (ix) not to use the Site and/or the Services for any illegal or unauthorized purpose;

    (x) not to use the Site or the Services or sell access to the Site or the Services for the purposes of advertising any goods or services other than the sale of the User’s own original content/material in a published book form on third party sites or bookstores;

    (xi) that the Site, the Services and any content/material thereon are provided by the Company, on an “as is” and “as available” basis, without any representation or warranty (express or implied), that the Site, the Services and any content/material thereon are free from errors, defects, design flaws, omissions, viruses or other harmful components, and the User acknowledges that he/she will use the Site and the Services and any content/material thereon at his/her sole risk and discretion;

    (xii) to use the Site and Services only for non-commercial and personal use and purposes;

    (b) The User agrees, to the extent that the Services provide such functionality, to accurately tag and identify the nature of the User’s uploaded Stories, including, without limitation, by selecting appropriate tags and identifiers with respect to adult or mature Stories. The Company reserves the right to investigate any allegation that a Story does not conform to this Agreement and may determine, in good faith and at its sole discretion, whether to remove such content, and it further reserves the right to do so at any time. Any copyright holder, who believes in good faith that his/her content/material has been made available through the Service without his/her authorization, may request that the Company removes such content/material by following the procedures described in Section 6 (e) through (n) above .

    8. Liability for Content

    (a) The Site and Services are offered by the Company for non-commercial and personal purposes only. The content of all Stories and anything else that is publicly posted on the Site or privately transmitted is the sole responsibility of the User who originated and uploaded such content. The Company may, but is not obliged to, monitor or control the content of any Story posted through the Services. The Company does not assume any responsibility for such content, nor does it endorse or confirm the veracity or reliability of any content or information posted by a User. The Company specifically disclaims any implied warranties of non-infringement with regard to any Story published or posted on the Site.

    (b) The User understands that he/she may be exposed to content that might be offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate or in certain instances where the postings may have been mislabeled. By accessing or using the Site and/or the Services, the User discharges and releases the Company from all claims, demands and damages arising out of or in any way related to disputes regarding the Site and/or the Services between the User and the Company or between the User and other third parties.

    (c) If any action or omission by the User results in the Company being sued or the Agreement being breached, the User shall compensate the Company for any and all losses, damages, claims and expenses that arise from or relate to the use or misuse of the Site or Services by the User. Notwithstanding anything contained herein, in no event shall the Company’s liability to a User for damages arising out of or in any way related to the Site or the Services, be in excess of One Hundred Dollars (US$100.00).

    9. Third Party Sites

    The Site and the Services may include advertisements or other links that allow a User to access web sites or other online services that are owned and operated by third parties. The User acknowledges and agrees that the Company is not responsible for, and shall have no liability whatsoever for the content of such third party sites, links, products or services made available through those advertisements or links, or by the User using or interacting with them.

    10. Indemnification

    The User agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Company, any related companies, and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, attorneys and representatives of each of them, from and against all losses, costs, liabilities, claims, damages and expenses (including but not limited to costs and legal expenses) as incurred, resulting from or arising out of (a) the User accessing the Site or using the Services, (b) any breach or violation of the terms of the Agreement (including negligent or wrongful conduct) by the User, or (c) the infringement of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity, by the User or any third party using the User’s account.

    11. Mobile Services

    The Company may use SMS services to provide the User with notifications relating to the Site or to his/her use of the Services. The User hereby consents to receive such messages through SMS services and declares that the User has the authority and is the owner of the mobile number provided by the User. The User acknowledges and agrees that he/she is solely responsible for data usage fees, messaging fees and any other fees that his/her wireless service carrier may charge in connection with the Company’s use of the SMS service to communicate with the User.

    12. Contests

    From time to time, the Company may sponsor contests that are featured on the Site. The User agrees that the participation in any of our contests shall be subject to the rules and guidelines that the Company publishes for such contests. By participating in any contest, you agree that the Company would be entitled to share your Story on the Site. As a contestant, each User and winner waives all claims of liability against the Company, any related companies, their respective employees and agents, the contest’s sponsors and their respective employees and agents, for any personal injury or loss which may occur from the conduct of, or participation in the contest, or from the use of any prize.

    13. Additional Terms

    When you use certain features or materials available on the Site or Services or participate in a particular promotion, event or contest through the Services, such use or participation may be subject to additional terms and conditions posted on the Site or Services. Such additional terms and conditions are hereby incorporated in and form part of this Agreement, and the User agrees to comply with them with respect to such use or participation.

    14. Termination

    (a) The User may, at any time, for any or no reason, terminate this Agreement by directly deleting his/her account or by contacting the Company at admin@soulserial.com. The User agrees that the Company may, in its sole and absolute discretion and for any or no reason, terminate this Agreement, the User’s account or the use of the Services, at any time and without notice, and without any liability to the User.

    (b) The User understands and agrees that, without limitation and in accordance with the license he/she grants to the Company under Section 6 above, the Company may continue to make use of the User’s comments and posts as permitted by this Agreement, after termination or expiration of this Agreement.

    (c ) The Company may also in its sole and absolute discretion and at any time discontinue providing the Services, or any part thereof, with or without notice. The User agrees that the Company shall not be liable to him/her or any third-party for any such discontinuance or termination and that Sections 6 and 7 above (solely with respect to grants of rights by the User and the User’s obligations herein) will survive any termination of this Agreement.

    15. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

    This Agreement shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of the District of Columbia, USA, without regard to the principles of conflict of laws. The User agrees that any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with this Agreement will be determined by the courts of the District of Columbia, USA.

    16. Entire Agreement

    This Agreement (including any document incorporated by reference to them) constitutes the whole agreement between the Company and the User with regard to the use by the User of the Site and the Services provided by the Company.

    17. No Waiver and Severability

    Failure to exercise or enforce a particular right or provision of the Agreement does not constitute a waiver of that right or provision. If any provision is invalid or unenforceable under the governing law, then that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions of the Agreement shall continue to remain in full force and effect.

    18. Assignment

    The Agreement is personal to the User and accordingly the User cannot assign, transfer or sublicense the Agreement or any part thereof to anyone without the prior written consent of the Company. The Company has the right to assign, transfer or delegate any of its rights and obligations under the Agreement without notice to or the User’s consent.

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