Terms of Service
§ 1 Scope
(1) These Terms of Service, as offered by the company, Steady Media GmbH, located at Wattstr. 11, 13355 Berlin (the licensor), cover the terms for contracts for the delivery of data by the licensor to a user or company (the licensee) in digital form (digital content).
(2) The Terms of Service apply to all digital content the licensor makes directly available to the licensee through its website or other technical systems. They also apply when the licensor makes content available via a website or other technical system (for example, via email, link or in a password protected members' area) on behalf of a contractually responsible third party (the publisher)
(3) The expressed or implied inclusion of the licensee's own business agreements or licensing terms is rejected unless expressly agreed.
(4) For the purposes of these Terms of Service, a consumer is a natural person who enters into a legal contract for purposes not related to commercial or self-employed professional activities (§ 13 German civil code). A company is a natural or legal person or entity who enters into a legal contract in connection to their commercial or self-employed professional activities (§ 14 German civil code).
§ 2 Subject Matter
(1) The licensor allows the licensee to use a digital kiosk to access to digital content under a subscription model (subscriptions), which is subject to these Terms of Service.
(2) The licensor transfers the right to use and exploit content from publishers who hold copyright over such digital content, and who license this upon the request of the licensee via its digital kiosk.
(3) The digital content is described on publisher-specific sub-pages of the website of the licensor. Subscriptions shall grant benefits, for example, early or exclusive access to digital content. The precise contractual terms of the subscriptions shall be defined by each individual subscription description. Should the publisher offer any other digital content free of charge or at a cost, in addition to the content licensed by the licensee, this shall not be subject to the current Terms of Service.
(4) Upon entering into an agreement to purchase a subscription for digital content, the licensor is obliged to provide the licensee with the defined digital content for the agreed contractual period, and to grant specific user rights (see § 8).
(5) The purchasing of subscriptions requires the licensee to complete a one-time registration by opening a user account with the licensor and accepting these Terms of Service. Registration is free of charge. The conditions are set out in § 4.
(6) The licensee recognizes and specifically agrees that, based on the subscription, the range and type of digital content can regularly change and is dependent on the number of total subscriptions. Specific target numbers (goals) defined by the publisher for the period as set out under § 6, related to the defined digital content, can be regularly found on the publisher-specific sub-page.
(7) A contractual relationship exists solely between the licensor and the licensee. These Terms of Service do not establish or regulate a contractual relationship between the licensee and the Publisher.
§ 3 Contract Completion
(1) The text and description published on the licensor's website represents a binding offer of the licensor's service offer.
(2) The licensee can accept the licensor's service offer by using the online registration function on the licensor's website or other technical system. Additionally, the licensee can accept the described service offer of a third-party publisher who has entered into an agreement with the licensor and is named as a contractual party.
(3) The licensee accepts the licensor's service offer by selecting a specific subscription for the delivery of digital goods, placing it in a virtual shopping cart, and completing the online order process. The contract is legally binding once the licensee clicks the final button in the electronic order process. At this point the contract becomes effective.
§ 4 User Account
(1) Upon accepting an offer and completing an online order process, the licensor's contractual text will be saved and sent to the licensee by email, together with the text of the current Terms of Service.
(2) Before finalizing a binding contract via the online order process, the licensee can input and correct their details using the keyboard and mouse. All details entered prior to the order finalization will be displayed in a confirmation message and can be corrected using the keyboard and mouse.
(3) The contract will be completed in the German language.
(4) The ordering process and contract completion takes place via email and automated order processing.
(5) The licensee must ensure that the email address and payment information entered during the ordering process is correct so that they can receive emails from the licensor. The provided email address is also required to receive emails from publishers. The licensee commits to keeping the provided email address up-to-date and must ensure that emails from the licensee will not be blocked by spam filters.
(6) The licensee has the possibility to amend their subscription orders via their user account. Copies of invoices from the previous three months can be found in the user account.
§ 5 Subscription Model and Price
(1) The licensee shall grant the licensor a license fee for processing the requested subscription for digital content.
(2) The amount of the license fee is set out in each subscription description. All prices are inclusive and contain lawful value-added tax.
(3) The payment of licensee fees will be made in advance of the entire effective period, which corresponds to the billing period.
(4) Payments from countries outside the European Union may in certain cases carry further costs which must be paid by the licensee. For example, there may be additional costs imposed by credit institutions for transferring money or converting currency.
(5) The licensor offers various payment methods, which are described in their current form on the licensor’s website. The data privacy policy is contained in a separate data privacy policy declaration.
§ 6 Contract Period
(1) Subscriptions are unlimited in duration and can be ended at any time without notice or grounds by each party before the end of the current subscription cycle (for example, monthly or yearly).
(2) The licensee has no right to a refund of the license fee when they cancel their contract before the end of the effective period. This does not apply if the licensee has used their right to an extraordinary cancellation under paragraph 5, and has given notice of their cancellation.
(3) If the licensor cancels the contract before the end of the effective period without any cancellation by the licensee, the licensee shall receive a refund of the pre-paid license fee in proportion to the remaining period.
(4) A cancellation notice must be delivered in text form (such as via email) in order to be effective. Cancellation can also occur via the user account.
(5) The right to extraordinary cancellation for good cause exists. Good cause exists when the terminating party, having considered all individual circumstances, and taking into account the interest of both parties, determines that the continuation of the contract until the end of the contractual period cannot be expected.
§ 7 Content Delivery, Functionality and Limitation
(1) The licensor shall deliver access digital content exclusively in electronic form by email, per download or another specified access method via the website or other technical system. Alternatively, content may be delivered via a third-party website or technical system as specified by the licensor. The licensee may be required to log in to the website of the third party using data provided by the licensor.
(2) Functionality, technical restrictions and technical protections, if in effect, can be found in the subscription description. Any delivery restrictions that may occur can also be found in the subscription description.
§ 8 Granting of Usage Rights
(1) The licensor grants the licensee a non-exclusive, non-transferable usage right over the provided digital content, unrestricted by time or place, exclusively for personal private use. Any and all commercial use is forbidden.
(2) Any transfer of the provided digital content in any form to a third person, or the creation of copies outside the limitations of these Terms of Service is not permitted, unless the transfer of rights to a third person is expressly permitted in written form by the licensor.
(3) The usage rights become effective only once the licensee has fulfilled their contractual obligations and made the required payments. The licensor may allow the use of the specified digital content before this point. Such a provisional period does not represent a transfer of rights.
§ 9 Content of Digital Goods and Copyright
The licensor, as set out in § 2, handles digital goods provided by the copyright holder. The licensor is a reseller. Digital content originates exclusively from the publisher, and not the licensor. The identity of each publisher is published on the legal notice sub-page of each respective publisher. The licensor handles the content and establishes a license for its use. The digital content does not represent the opinions of the licensor or any of its employees. The licensor does not condone or uphold the digital content from third parties.
§ 10 Right of Revocation
Consumers (as defined in § 1 Paragraph 4) have a basic right of revocation. Further information about revocation rights are contained in the revocation policy of the licensor. This revocation right can be waived in advance by the consumer in exceptional situations. The consumer will be informed about the possibility of waiving their rights in the subscription ordering process.
§ 11 Liability for Defects
Legally stipulated regulations apply.
§ 12 Data Protections
Data protection information is published in the data protection policy on the licensor's website. The licensee expressly allows the licensor to transfer their data to specific publishers from which the licensee has requested a subscription for the delivery of licensed digital content for the duration of the contractual period. The right to transfer data extends only to the data necessary in order to fulfill the specified license agreement (such as name, address, email address, contract period, subscription and cancellation). Account and payment data will under no circumstances be transferred, unless the licensor is required to do so by law or regulation. The licensee can object to future data transfers at any time.
§ 13 Final Provisions
(1) The rights of the Federal Republic of Germany apply, excluding the provisions of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. In cases where the licensee is a company, a legal person under common law or a special public fund, the jurisdiction for all disputes relating to contracts and Terms of Service between the licensor and licensee shall be the licensor's place of registration. This does not apply to consumers.
(2) For licensees who are consumers, the place of jurisdiction shall be the consumer's registered home address. For disputes relating to this contract and Terms of Service, an additional place of jurisdiction for consumers whose home address is in Germany shall be the licensor's place of registration. For consumers whose home address is in Austria, the place of jurisdiction shall be Vienna, and for consumers in Switzerland, the place of jurisdiction shall be Bern.
(3) The licensor reserves the right to amend these Terms of Service without notice at any time. The licensor shall inform the licensee of any amendments to their registered email address. The amended Terms of Service are considered to be accepted if the licensee does not appeal against them in written form or email within six weeks of receiving notice of the amendments.
§ 14 Support, Service Provider Information and Online Dispute Settlement
Support and service requests can be sent by the licensee to the licensor as the responsible service provider. Requests can also be directed to the publishers, as long as the licensor has not specifically objected and informed the licensee in text form. Service provider information is published in the licensor's website legal notice, which also contains information about online dispute settlement.