Terms of Use

Preamble

These are the Terms of Use of Flying Dutchman Online Communities (proprietor: Michael Hulsman), Deutschherrenstraße 87a, D-53177 Bonn, Germany, as operator (hereinafter referred to as “Operator” of the platform (hereinafter referred to as “Platform”) that can be reached at footballrs.net .

These Terms of Use govern the contractual relationship between the Operator and the natural and legal persons (hereinafter referred to as “User(s)”) who use the Platform.

 

1 Applicability, Amendments to the Terms of Use

(1) These Terms of Use apply to the entire Platform including all areas that have been integrated and are still to be integrated therein.

(2) For unregistered Users, these Terms of Use shall apply in the version applicable at the time when the use takes place. For registered Users, these Terms of Use shall apply in the version applicable at the time of registration.

(3) Amendments to the Terms of Use will be announced to registered Users by e-mail at least six weeks in advance. They will be deemed accepted by the User if the User does not object to the amendments within six weeks of the receipt of the announcement. Timely dispatch of the objection within the said period shall be sufficient. The objection can be sent by mail or e-mail to the addresses indicated in the Legal Notice. In the e-mail announcing the amendments, the Operator undertakes to expressly inform the User of the significance of the six-week period and the said legal consequence of the User’s silence. The said legal consequence shall only occur if the notification has actually taken place. For the case that the User objects to the amendments, the Operator reserves the right to terminate the agreement with the notice period specified in section 8 (1) of these Terms of Use.

 

2 Registration

(1) While passive use of the Platform does not require registration, registration as User is a precondition especially for the active participation in the Platform. If the Operator accepts the User’s application for registration, a free license agreement will come into existence between the respective registered User and the Operator. The User is not permitted to transfer the license agreement to any third party. Multiple registration is not permitted.

(2) There is no legal claim to registration.

(3) Any natural person above the age of 13 and any legal person may apply for registration by completing the registration form on the Platform and accepting these Terms of Use.

(4) The registration requires the input of a valid e-mail address, a suer name, and the selection of a password. Within the scope of the registration, every User undertakes to provide correct and complete name details (real name obligation) and especially not to breach any third-party rights. Among other things, a breach of third-party rights shall exist if personal information or other data of third parties (e.g. name or e-mail address) are used without their consent.

(5) The Users shall keep the password selected during the registration secret and shall not disclose it to any third parties. Every registered User shall without delay inform the Operator in the event of loss or unauthorized use of his login details.

(6) The registered Users are responsible for the confidential handling of the login details (especially password) issued to them or selected by them, and shall be liable to the Operator for any damage arising from culpable breach of these diligence obligations.

 

3 Free Services

(1) The registration on the Platform and the use of the basic services are free of charge.

(2) The Operator reserves the right to make the use of certain services on the Platform payable whenever the Operator may consider this suitable. In this case, the Users will be informed accordingly. Furthermore, the Operator reserves the right to display a reasonable amount of advertising.

 

4 User-Generated Content

(1) On the Platform, the Users can upload texts, images, and other content (“content”) within the services offered. These serve the display in the profile or the publication within the various services.

(2) The data released by the Users in connection with the profile serve the external presentation of the respective User for the purpose of participating in the Platform. The User is free to decide how his profile is to be presented. The Operator merely takes over the released data for the profile presentation and uses a uniform profile mask for all Users.

(3) The Users are fully responsible for the contents uploaded in this context. Prior to publication, the Operator does not check the information provided by the Users for content, correctness, or legal compliance.

(4) The participants are free to decide which photographs are to be used for their profiles and make them available to the Operator for the purpose of the membership. The participants undertake not to upload any content containing pornographic, debased, racist, or offensive depictions to the profile and to the Platform. The Operator does not review the content in advance. The Operator uses the photographs released by the participants as profile images exclusively for the creation of the respective User profiles and will not forward these to any third parties.

(5) Even for registered Users, the storage of uploaded content takes place exclusively for Platform operation purposes. The license agreement does not pertain to the provision of storage space or safekeeping of content for the benefit of the uploading Users. The Operator may at all times, e.g. for capacity or updating purposes, delete content without prior announcement, without establishing any rights for the Users. The Users are responsible for duly backing up any content that they want to keep permanently.

 

5 Copyrights

(1) When creating their profiles and other contents, the Users undertake to comply with existing statutory copyright regulations. In particular, the Users undertake only to use their own texts, photographs, and videos or ones that they have the right to publish.

(2) By uploading texts, images, or other content, the User grants the Operator the non-exclusive, but permanent and regionally unlimited right to use the respective content within the scope or for the purposes of the Platform, in own e-mail newsletters, especially to offer them to other Users for download, storage, and printout. The material may be processed, copied, distributed, made publicly accessible, and be reproduced by the Operator in the scope required for the use according to the preceding sentence. Within the offer, uploaded material may also be presented in a professionally edited form, highlighted, and rated.

(3) The Users are responsible for making sure that the texts and photographs they upload do not breach any third-party rights. In this respect, the Operator will not review the individual content.

 

6 Content Submissions

(1) In their dealings with each other, the Users shall observe the rules of good and respectful conduct. No User is permitted to breach statutory prohibitions or good morals or third-party rights (e.g. name rights, trademark rights, copyrights, data protection rights, personality rights, etc.) by means of material that the User makes available to others via the offer. In particular, the Users are prohibited from directly or indirectly distributing content of a pornographic nature, that are harmful to minors, glorify violence, or incite hatred, that encourage crimes or represent instructions to that end, or that offend the political, ideological, or religious views of third parties. The decisions and requirements of the Operator and its representatives, which determine what types of behavior or what contents breach the said principles, are binding for the Users.

(2) For example, the following content shall not be published and/or distributed over the Platform. The Operator reserves the right to review everybody who, in the sole judgment of the Operator, breaches this provision and to take suitable steps. This also includes the deletion of said content and the immediate exclusion of the User from the services of the Platform. Among other things, prohibited content includes the following:

  • Clearly offensive content and content that supports right-wing extremism, racism, fanaticism, hatred, or physical violence of all kinds against any group or individuals;
  • Content that molests another person or supports molestation;
  • Content that supports the sexual or violent exploitation of persons;
  • Content that supports false or misleading information and illegal activities or conduct of an insulting, threatening, obscene, defamatory, or slanderous nature;
  • Content that supports criminal activities or plans or contains instructions for illegal activities;
  • All commercial use without the consent of the Operator or its representatives.

(2) With respect to the created submissions, the Operator will not review the individual contents in advance.

(3) When using the offer, the Users are not permitted to send data or store data on a storage medium of the Operator whose type, characteristics, size, or number could impair the function of the computer systems of the Operator, affiliated companies, or third parties or that could breach their rights (e.g. viruses, Trojans, spam e-mail, etc.).

(4) Analysis, storage, or forwarding of the personal data of other Users for purposes other than the intended use of the Platform is prohibited. The Users shall treat any information about other Users and communication content that they gain access to as confidential, unless they have been published by the authorized party.

(4) As soon as a breach of this or statutory provisions is discovered, the Operator may also resort to the rights described in section 7.

 

7 Administration Rights

(1) The Operator reserves the right to partly or fully limit the functionality of the Platform temporarily for administrative purposes.  To continuously improve the network to the needs of the Users, the Operator may disable or supplement parts of the Platform. Continued provision of the functionality that existed at the time of the User’s registration cannot be demanded.

(2) The Operator may also limit the functions temporarily in order to effectively combat legal breaches. These limitations include but are not limited to the temporary or permanent blocking or exclusion of individual areas or Users.

(3) Contents that Users report as inappropriate or that the Operator identifies as a breach of these Terms of Use may, if the allegations are found to be true, be deleted immediately and without informing the User responsible for the upload.

(4) In the event of a culpable breach of these Terms of Use, the User shall be liable to the Operator for compensation of all direct and indirect damage, including pecuniary damage, which may arise from the breach. In the event of a breach of sections 4 to 7, the User indemnifies the Operator against all third-party claims that may be asserted against the Operator, its legal representatives, and/or its agents on the basis of this breach. The right to assert further claims is reserved.

 

8 Termination and Deactivation of the User Account

(1) Both the Users and the Operator may terminate the license agreement at all times with one day’s notice, effective at the end of the week.

(2) Moreover, the Operator may take the following measures if there are concrete indications that a member is breaching statutory regulations, third-party rights, these Terms of Use, especially sections 4 to 7, or that the Operator has other justified interests, especially to protect other members from fraudulent activities:

  • Issue of warning to members
  • Limitation/restriction of the use of the Platform
  • Preliminary block
  • Final block

In its choice of the measures, the Operator will take the justified interests of the affected User into consideration, especially if there are any indications that the breach was not caused the User.

(3) Both Parties expressly reserve further rights to termination with immediate effect for good cause. In particular, the Operator is entitled to terminate the license agreement without prior notice and to deactivate the account in the event of serious or major breaches of these Terms of Use by the User.

 

9 Disclaimer

(1) The Operator does not accept any liability for third-party information and data. This applies especially but is not limited to the completeness, correctness, freedom from third-party rights, and conformity with statutory provisions or other binding rules.

(2) Apart from this, the Operator shall only be liable if it, its agents, and/or its legal representatives are guilty of intentional or grossly negligent behavior. This shall not apply to the extent that material contractual obligations are breached by the Operator, its agents, and/or its legal representatives.

(3) In the event of slight negligence, the liability of the Operator and/or its agents and legal representatives is excluded with respect to indirect damage, especially consequential damage, unforeseeable damage, or non-typical damage.

(4) The Operator does not accept any liability for the operability of the provided systems. In particular, no responsibility is assumed for errors, omissions, interruptions, deletions, defects, delays in the operation or transmission, failure of the communication lines, and unauthorized access to or theft, destruction, or manipulation of messages of the Users. The Operator is not responsible for problems or technical malfunction in connection with telephone networks or telephone lines, online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, or for failures due to technical problems or data congestion on the Internet and/or in one of the services or a combination of these. Moreover, the Provider does not accept any liability for the transmission and/or timely transmission of information, data, e-mail, and other messages.

 

10 Jurisdiction

(1) Should individual provisions of these Terms of Use be or become invalid, this shall not affect the validity of the other provisions.

(2) The place of jurisdiction for merchants as defined in the German Commercial Code (HGB) is the location of the Operator’s registered office.

(3) German law shall apply, under exclusion of conflict of law and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), which has been adopted in German law.