Deafzone

Version 1.0, last modified on 27-Nov-2007

• I. General Terms
• II. Copyright
• III. Limitation of Liability
• IV. Exclusion
• V. Applicable Law and Venue

I. General Terms

1. Introduction

These General Terms and Conditions of the Verein Deafzone, Switzerland, (hereafter Deafzone), determine the rights and obligations of users when they use the services of Deafzone offered on http://www.deafzone.ch (including all sub-domains).

Deafzone cannot control the risks which arise when doing business with unknown persons. Users can give false information, although this is not permitted, or display other behaviour that is not permitted or is illegal or violate in some other way the obligations of users. Therefore Deafzone, its representatives, members, staff and assistants are not responsible for the legal relationship resulting from published information or in connection with published information.

2. Deafzone User Registration

1. The registration free of charge as a Deafzone user is the condition for publishing information on http://www.deafzone.ch, to gain access to the address list of http://www.deafzone.ch, as well as the use of many other functions.
2. When registering with Deafzone all users shall submit their agreement to these General Terms and Conditions.
3. Each time the General Terms and Conditions change, users shall submit again their agreement to the latest General Terms and Conditions if they want to continue to use http://www.deafzone.ch.
4. Only an unrestricted natural person or legal entity can become a Deafzone user. Persons of all ages may register, however, a virtual bank account for the internal pre-paid-system shall only be set up for persons over 16 years of age.
5. Following the successful registration each user receives their own Deafzone account. The Deafzone account is a personal account and not transferable.

3. Separation of roles

Users shall indicate their roles correctly when publishing information. The two roles of "private person" and "organization" shall be applied correctly.

A user shall publish information in the name of an organization in the following situations:

1. All legal entities (companies, unions, clubs, associations etc.).
2. Organizations holding events periodically like scout groups or church services.
3. A group of at least two private persons holding at least two events per year or appearing as a group twice.
4. Exceptions are: school and university students, as long as the activity is limited to nine months (theses).

In all other situations, the publication of contents by a private person is permitted.

4. No Right to Registration or Usage

1. There is no right to registration or the usage of http://www.deafzone.ch services. Deafzone is free to caution, deactivate or remove a user or discontinue a service at any time.
2. At times, the webpage http://www.deafzone.ch may not be available or only in a limited form due to maintenance or other reasons, and this shall not give the user any right of claim against Deafzone.

5. Caution and Exclusion of Deafzone Users

To caution and exclude Deafzone users, the following rules are applicable if Deafzone has conclusive evidence for incidents described below:

With difficult cases, Deafzone may invoice the user for reminder expenses or the cost of countering subversive activities, or Deafzone may deduct such costs directly from the user's virtual money account.

A caution or deletion of a user's account can also happen at any time, if Deafzone has another, justified interest in a caution of a user or the deletion of a user's account.

6. Cancellation of a User's Account

Any Deafzone user can cancel their account at any time under My Account and thus effect a final deregistration from http://www.deafzone.ch.

Before cancellation, the user has the opportunity to have the balance withdrawn. In this case the user shall wait with the cancellation, until the money has arrived in his real bank account.

If the user forgets to request the balance before the cancellation, this balance belongs irrevocably to Deafzone.

The kind of user data which is removed in case of a cancellation is defined under Privacy. The information published by the user remains, however, on the webpage.

7. Fees

Most services on http://www.deafzone.ch are free of charge. A fee is charged only for the installation of certain functions. These functions are immediately active, if the installation fee is paid from the virtual bank account.

Legal entities, that is organizations, shall pay a monthly fee for modules they are using. A complete table of all fees is visible under the page Fees.

For a private person the private use of all modules remains free of charge.

Deafzone has the right to change fees at any time.

II. Published Information

1. Prohibited Contents

The following contents are prohibited on http://www.deafzone.ch and shall result in a caution or immediate deletion of the user's account:

• The contents are contrary to the Aims of Deafzone. We do not accept contents contradictory to what we want to achieve with http://www.deafzone.ch.
• The contents are too commercial. However: commercial contents in relation to Deafzone's objectives, like media on Sign language and Deaf culture, have a good chance to be published nevertheless by the administration of Deafzone.
• The contents were created at the wrong place, e.g. a circular email, which is actually an event and should be entered in the calendar.
• The entire range of inhumane contents from pornography to racist contents to the defamation of private persons (Civil Code Article 28, clause 1).

2. Copyright

Pictures, texts, films, etc. available on the Internet are fundamentally not public property. This means that copying or downloading of pictures, texts, films, etc. could potentially violate the copyright of a third party.

For the above reason, you are only allowed to use pictures, texts, films, etc. which you have produced yourself, or if you have the permission to use them. Basically, this means that all contents on http://www.deafzone.ch may be linked, quoted or copied (for more information see Copyright for published contents). On the other hand, work like style sheets and programming for the workings of this webpage are strictly copyright and are the property of the creators of the webpage. They are Deafzone and Binary Kitchen.

The owners of protective rights (particularly copyright) may point out information which violates their rights. Deafzone shall delete entries immediately which are violating the protective rights of third parties.

Furthermore, Deafzone may caution users who violate copyright, or in severe cases, invoice those users for subversive activities.

III. Limitation of Liability

Deafzone is only liable for direct damages which are caused by a deliberate, grossly negligent action by Deafzone itself. Deafzone's liability for direct damages caused by a slight fault - no matter for which legal reason - is, with the proviso of compelling statutory regulations, expressly excluded.

IV. Exclusion

If a user, beneficiary or a third party make a claim against Deafzone because of a violation of their rights by published contents of another user or because of another use of the webpage http://www.deafzone.ch , that user releases Deafzone from all claims and takes over the cost of the legal defense (including court and legal fees).

V. Applicable Law and Venue

Swiss Law shall apply to all legal relationships between Deafzone and the users in relation to the above General Terms and Conditions, insofar as there are no compelling legal regulations are against it.

The Severability Clause shall come into effect if conditions in these General Terms and Conditions are faulty or incomplete.

The venue for the resolution of all disputes between the users and Deafzone is exclusively the domicile of the president of Deafzone insofar as there are no compelling legal reasons against it. If the president lives abroad, the domicile of the vice-president shall be the venue.