I. Scope

1.1 The following General Terms and Conditions of Business govern the terms of use of the services offered by Mapler Holdings Limited at www.mapler.com ("mapler.com").

1.2 By registering at mapler.com, you explicitly consent to these General Terms and Conditions of Business.

II. Specification of Services

2.1 Mapler.com is a multimedia platform which allows users to upload and publish content, compare notes with other users and share content with a broad-based and open community. Mapler.com’s services include the uploading of user content to the site in formats such as video, image or text among others, content evaluation by other users, comments by users and participation in polls. Mapler.com also allows users to contact each other and link to uploaded content on their own websites.

2.2 Most services on mapler.com are provided free of cost. The site also features “premium services” that are charged. Charges for a given service are indicated at the time of registration.

2.3 In order to utilize the services, you will require Internet access as well as the associated technical equipment, and you are responsible for providing the same. You are also responsible for any charges relating to these.

2.4 Mapler.com’s responsibility is restricted to data storage on mapler.com systems and data transfer to and from the access points of these systems and the World Wide Web (WWW). Mapler.com has no control over data transfers outside its own sphere of responsibility, and does not assume responsibility for the same, especially for faults or outages in public communication networks and third-party technical equipment that control data flow on the Internet.

2.5 Please note that technical faults and outages can never be ruled out completely in the case of Internet services.

2.6 For services offered free of cost by mapler.com (“free services”), mapler.com reserves the right to convert individual or all services to “premium services” in the future.

2.7 For charged services (“premium services”), the supplementary Special Terms and Conditions applicable in each case must be complied with.

2.8 Some services allow users to purchase goods or services from partner companies or third parties. The use of such services establishes a contractual relationship between the user and the respective partner company or third-party alone. Mapler.com does not stand guarantee for the capability of the partner company or third parties and shall not be liable for the satisfaction of such agreements.

III. Registration

3.1 You need to register on www.mapler.com to take advantage of the offers on the site.

3.2 The user must complete the registration form correctly and factually. All compulsory fields must be filled for successful registration.

3.3 Only those capable of entering into legal transactions or acting with the consent of their legal representatives are entitled to become users.

3.4 Users must keep passwords confidential. Users must not provide their passwords to third persons. Users must inform mapler.com immediately if it comes to their knowledge that a third party has gained access to their password or is misusing their password.

IV. Termination of Membership Account, Blocking of Account

4.1 You agree that mapler.com may terminate your password and membership account (or portions thereof or specific content therein) or any other use of our services and delete your content at its discretion and for any reason whatsoever. In particular, this shall apply if you fail to use mapler.com services for an extended period of time or if mapler.com comes to the conclusion that you have violated or failed to comply with important basic concepts in the General Terms and Conditions of Business.

4.2 You agree that mapler.com may suspend your access to its services under the terms of this agreement without prior notification and that mapler.com may block or delete your membership account and all information and files immediately and/or block further access to such files or to the offer.

4.3 If your membership account is deleted, you can access our offer again only with our prior and explicit consent in writing. You may not assist a user whose membership account has been deleted or blocked to gain access to the offer through or with the help of your membership account.

4.4 The obligations under Items 7.2, 7.3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 shall continue to apply even after the membership account has been deleted if their application is in relation to your behavior before deletion.

V. Content Storage, Responsibility, Prohibited Content

5.1 Mapler.com shall provide storage space on mapler.com for users to upload content, especially images, videos and text. The size of the storage space provided shall depend on the content (video, images, text, audio) and shall be restricted to the size specified in the upload area.

5.2 The user shall be solely responsible for content that is uploaded. The user must ensure that the content is not protected under any rights or that he/she is in a position to obtain the requisite rights from the rights holder (especially copyrights, trademark rights, rights to a name, and labeling rights). The user must also ensure that content uploaded to mapler.com, and especially to the storage area, does not violate statutory provisions or accepted principles of morality. In particular, the content should not be threatening, improper, racist, glorifying violence, slanderous, annoying, offensive, pornographic or in any other manner liable to corrupt the young.

5.3 The user shall also be responsible for ensuring that content uploaded to the storage area or elsewhere on mapler.com is free from viruses, worms, Trojans or other programs that could threaten or impair the functionality or continuance of mapler.com or that of the websites of users.

5.4 Mapler.com shall be entitled to block or delete content that violates the provisions of these General Terms and Conditions of Business. The user shall not be entitled to ask mapler.com to rescind the block or restore content that has already been taken down. Irrespective of the right to block or delete content, mapler.com shall continue to be entitled to exclude the user from any future use of mapler.com services and/or to assert any claims against these (especially claims for damages).

VI. Note on the International Nature of the Internet

6.1 Please note that content made publicly available on the Internet is accessible worldwide, which includes content published or disseminated by you during your use of the services. It is your duty to ensure that such content does not violate any applicable foreign law.

VII. General Obligations on the Part of the User

7.1 You must ensure that you have sole access to your account. In particular, you must maintain your password confidential to prevent misuse.

7.2 You acknowledge that the owner of the membership account alone is fully responsible for all actions carried out through the account. In the event that you permit your account to be used by someone such as a minor without permission from a legal guardian, you shall assume full responsibility for the user’s actions, for controlling access by such user, for the user’s use of the services, and for the consequences of any misuse by the user.

7.3 You shall inform us promptly if your password or membership account is misused or if any security regulations are violated. Any misuse of your membership account for which you are responsible shall render you liable to mapler.com.

7.4 You shall procure and bear the costs of the technical equipment and facilities (Internet access, mobile telephony access etc.) needed for using the services.

7.5 You undertake to refrain from actions that could impair the functionality of our services (using software or other scripts, for example). In particular, this applies to the use of “robots”, “spiders” or “off-line reader” software that creates automated user questions over the Internet. You also undertake to refrain from modifying, overwriting, copying or distributing areas of the website not provided to you for this purpose, including areas belonging to other users.

VIII. Granting of Rights

8.1 The user shall permit mapler.com to use uploaded content to provide the services available at mapler.com and shall grant mapler.com rights to the content at no cost. In particular, this right of utilization shall include the right to make the content available to the public and the right to copy, distribute and broadcast content to third parties throughout the world via mapler.com or via other media if need be.

8.2 Furthermore, mapler.com shall be entitled to take measures to advertise and/or undertake other promotional measures regarding the content made publicly available and to use the content in such measures. The user hereby gives its explicit consent hereto.

8.3 Since mapler.com is an open community, the user explicitly agrees that third parties are allowed to link to the content from external sources or to refer to the content in any other manner. The objectives of this community dictate that all content should be freely accessible by third parties. In particular, content can be used by third parties for their own purposes. The user grants mapler.com the right to sublicense and to assign utilization rights to the content. Mapler.com does not demand ownership of the content. Instead, the user is solely responsible for content uploaded by it.

IX. Availability of Services

9.1 The user acknowledges that mapler.com does not assume any guarantee or warranty for the availability of mapler.com services. Mapler.com explicitly reserves the right to discontinue mapler.com or mapler.com services in whole or in part or to restrict their availability even without prior notification.

9.2 Mapler.com does not therefore guarantee that users will be able to use the services at all times and/or free of interruption

X. Exemption from Liability

You hereby declare that you exempt mapler.com, companies affiliated with mapler.com, and employee/representatives/shareholders/vicarious agents of mapler.com and/or companies affiliated with mapler.com from liability and indemnify them in respect of receivables or claims of any kind upon first demand for claims asserted by third parties due to or in connection with content saved, published and/or transmitted by you in the context of mapler.com services, or that are asserted due to your use of our offer, due to violations of these General Terms and Conditions of Business or of third party rights by you. This shall include reasonable attorney and court costs in each case.

XI. Modification/Discontinuation of Service

11.1 The technology and content of the services is subject to change, since mapler.com is continually developing new service features, enhancements and modifications based on changes in user behavior.

11.2 Mapler.com therefore reserves the right to modify the services (or individual features thereof) temporarily or permanently, provided these modifications are reasonable from your standpoint taking into consideration the interests of mapler.com. In particular, modifications that do not significantly impair the user’s interests or do not result in a significant restriction in the scope of use of free services, such as the addition of features to the services or changes to the registration process, shall be considered reasonable.
Modifications that substantially impair the user’s interests or result in a significant restriction in the scope of use of the free services must be notified in advance with a notification period of at least 30 calendar days and shall entitle you to terminate the utilization agreement as of the date of modification.
Mapler.com also reserves the right to discontinue services (or individual features thereof) for legal or technical reasons, among others. If mapler.com discontinues a free service, you shall be notified of the discontinuation at least 30 calendar days in advance at an appropriate location on mapler.com, providing you sufficient time to back up the content you had uploaded to the free service involved.

11.3 Premium services shall be subject to the following terms, at variance from free services. Modifications to a premium service that restrict its scope of use shall be permitted only after a notification period of at least 30 calendar days and shall entitle you to terminate the utilization agreement as of the date of modification. Charges already paid shall be reimbursed proportionately in case of termination of the agreement. The same shall apply mutatis mutandis to a complete discontinuation of the premium service.

XII. Notes on Rights Violations

12.1 We have provided a form on mapler.com using which individuals who believe that a user has uploaded content that violates their copyright or other protective rights can contact mapler.com. Please note that the form must be filled out completely and correctly before the alleged violation can be tracked.

12.2 In addition, if you believe that content uploaded by users violates these General Terms and Conditions of Business or violates statutory provisions, we request you to contact us at the address given in the imprint, and specifically, to provide us precise information regarding the storage location (category...) of the content.

XIII. Data Protection

13.1 Mapler.com does not assume any responsibility or liability if information is disclosed as a result of data transmission errors and/or unauthorized access by third parties.

13.2 The user agrees that usage data regarding its visits to mapler.com and partner websites may be recorded and processed for purposes of market research and optimization of mapler.com services. Mapler.com may pass on this data in anonymized form to third parties. Non-anonymized user data may be passed on to third parties only with the user’s consent. Cookies are used to manage mapler.com services.

13.3 The mapler.com website uses Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies”, text files that are saved on your computer and allow website usage to be analyzed. You may object at any time to the collection and storage of such data [link to http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de] with prospective effect. Details regarding your visit to this website (including your abbreviated IP address) generated via the cookie are transmitted to a Google server in the USA for analysis. Google uses this information to evaluate your use of the website, compile website activity reports for the website operator and provide other services associated with the use of the website and use of the Internet. This information may also be passed on to third parties by Google if required by law or insofar as third parties process this data on behalf of Google. Under no circumstances will Google correlate your IP address with other data from Google. You can prevent the installation of cookies through appropriate settings in your browser software. By using the www.mapler.com website, you consent to the processing of your data collected by Google in the above manner for the above purpose.

XIV. Trademarks and Protective Rights

Mapler.com services, content on the site including advertising content, and software used in connection with the services (“software”) are protected by statutory regulations, especially copyrights, trademarks, patents and other rights for the protection of intellectual property. You shall make use of the services, their content and the software installed solely in conformance with the usage guidelines laid down in these General Terms and Conditions of Business and any supplementary Special Terms of Business applicable, unless mapler.com or the concerned owners of the rights agree otherwise in writing.

XV. Changes to these General Terms and Conditions of Business

Mapler.com reserves the right to amend these General Terms and Conditions of Business in the future to take into consideration legal changes, changes to the services or regulatory loopholes, for example. Mapler.com will announce any amendments to these General Terms and Conditions of Business at least four weeks before they come into effect at an appropriate location on mapler.com. The amendments shall take effect if you do not object within four weeks of notification. Mapler.com shall inform you of your right to object and the consequences of failing to object when the changes are notified.

15.2 If you object within the period defined in Item 15.1, the current contractual provisions shall continue to apply to your use of the services. Rights of termination in accordance with Item IV (Termination of membership account, blocking of account) shall not be affected

XVI. Language of these General Terms and Conditions of Business

16.1 Mapler.com provides translations of these General Terms and Conditions of Business in various languages. If you accept the General Terms and Conditions of Business in a non-English version, you acknowledge that the translations are meant for purposes of comprehension alone and that the English version of the General Terms and Conditions of Business governs the relationship between you and mapler.com.

16.2 In case of any contradiction between a non-English version of these General Terms and Conditions of Business and the English version, the English version shall prevail.

XVII. General

17.1 English law shall apply; the UN Convention relating to a uniform law on the international sale of goods shall not be applicable.

17.2 The place of satisfaction and exclusive place of jurisdiction shall be Road Town, Tortola, the British Virgin Islands, as far as legally permissible.

17.3 Verbal collateral agreements do not exist. Amendments to the contractual provisions shall require the text form. This shall also apply to the revocation or amendment of this text form clause.

17.4 Should individual terms of this agreement be or become invalid in whole or in part, the rest of the agreement shall remain valid. In the event of such invalidity, the contractual parties shall replace the invalid provision by a legally valid term that comes as close as possible to the economic aims of the invalid provision. The same shall hold in the case of a loophole in the provisions.