Terms of Use of Voozme

Last update on June 2022
Version 1.0

Welcome to Voozme!

Voozme (“we” or “us”) is a platform for creating and sharing short videos (“Platform”) and is provided by Vooz Media GmbH, located at Am Unisys-Park 1, 65843 Sulzbach/Ts., Germany.
Vooz Media GmbH is a company registered in Germany in the commercial register with the number HRB 125530.

These Terms of Use govern your use of Voozme and the contractual relationship between you and us. With the use of the term “you”, you are meant as a user of the Platform. With the registration on our Platform, you agree with these Terms of Use. They constitute a legally binding agreement. Please take the time to read them carefully.

Table of contents

1. The Voozme Platform.. 2
2. Use of the Platform.. 2
3. Our Obligations. 3
4. Your Obligations. 3
5. Ownership Structure. 6
6. Copyrights. 7
7. Trademark rights. 9
8. Liability waiver. 10
9. Liability of Voozme. 10
10. Amendment of the Terms of Use. 11
11. Applicable Law.. 12
12. No Renunciation. 12
13. Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) 12

1. The Voozme Platform

On our Platform, you can upload and post short video tutorials, for example, in the areas of beauty, fashion, sports, and food, additionally to discover, watch, share, comment, and rate them. We want to bring you closer to topics you love and allow you to share and interact with other users about things you know and are good at.

2. Use of the Platform

To use the Platform, you must be at least 16 years old.

All Platform functions can only be accessed and used via the Voozme App (“App”). In particular, the following parts are available:

• You can record videos and import/upload them to the Platform.
• You can edit videos and enrich them with filters and additional elements.
• You can post videos within the Platform so that other users can view your videos. The videos you post as public are available to all users within the Platform.
• You can share your videos or videos of others who have allowed sharing their videos from other third-party social media platforms (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter) with other users in the Platform following their respective terms of use.
• You can enter a video description, category, and various privacy settings when posting a video.
• You can add a short biography and a profile picture to your public user profile in addition to your name.
• You can watch videos that other users have shared as public or watch videos from users you follow.
• The Platform provides you with an individual “For You” page. There you will see videos selected by the Platform based on what might be of your interest. For more information, please see our privacy policy.
• The Platform offers other ways to find content to watch, such as a list of other users’ videos in their profile, a search function, and a category selector.
• You can interact with other users. Within the Platform, you can send direct messages to other users you follow or interact with other users in the comments on the videos, depending on the settings of each posting user.
• You can rate the videos with stars from 1 (one) to 5 (five).
• Follows: You can follow other users. If users restrict their profile, you can only follow them if they approve your request.

3. Our Obligations

We are committed to providing you with the Platform. The Platform includes all features and technologies to fulfil the Platform’s purpose and to present you with interesting, enriching content.

Organising information for a growing community is a central aspect of our Platform. Creating and using modern technologies that help us personalise the content, protect the Platform and constantly improve it plays a significant role here. We strive to make the Platform and its content available at all times.

However, we cannot guarantee and/or assure the seamless and continuous provision of the Platform. Due to maintenance and improvements to the Platform, short-term disruptions and complete downtimes may occur during which the Platform is not accessible. These downtimes do not entitle you as a user to assert a liability claim under any circumstances, irrespective of the legal grounds. Any liability arising from this is excluded.

4. Your Obligations

Your access to and use of the Platform is subject to these Terms of Use and applicable laws and regulations.

You are not allowed to do the following:

• Accessing or using the Platform if you are not at least 16 years old or unable to agree to these Terms of Use;
• Copy, modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompress or create derivative works of the Platform, which prohibition includes any files, tables, or documentation (or any part thereof), or determine or attempt to determine the source code, algorithms, methods, or techniques embedded in the Platform, or create derivative works thereof;
• Distribute, license, transfer, or sell all or any part of the Platform or any derivative works thereof;
• Market, rent or lease the Platform for a fee or use the Platform for advertising or posting commercial offers;
• Use the Platform for any commercial or unauthorised purpose, including communicating or facilitating advertising or solicitation of customers or spam email, without our express written consent;
• Interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper functioning of the Platform;
• Integrate the Platform or any part thereof into another programme or product. In such event, we reserve the right to refuse the usage, terminate accounts, or restrict access to the Platform at our discretion;
• Use automated systems or software to extract data from the Platform for commercial purposes (“screen scraping”). This applies regardless of whether these systems or software programmes are operated by third parties or not;
• Pretend to be, or otherwise misrepresent yourself or your relationship to another person or entity. This includes creating the impression that content you upload, post, transmit, distribute, or otherwise make available originates from the Platform;
• Intimidate or harass other users, or third parties or promote sexually explicit material, violence, or discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age;
• Use the Platform in a way that may create a conflict of interest for you or us or otherwise undermine the purposes served by the Platform. Examples include sharing reviews with other users or creating or requesting reviews to promote products or platforms;
• Use the Platform to intentionally, grossly negligently, or recklessly upload, transmit, distribute, store, or otherwise make available any of the following:
• Materials that violate applicable laws or infringe the rights of others;
• Computer viruses, Trojans, worms, logic bombs, or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful;
• Unsolicited or unauthorised advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail”, “spam”, “chain letters”, “pyramid schemes”, or other prohibited forms of solicitation;
• Materials that infringe or may infringe another person’s copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property;
• Materials that violate the privacy or personal rights of another person or a deceased person;
• Materials that defame a person or are obscene, abusive, pornographic, hateful, or inflammatory;
• Promote or provide materials that constitute instructions to commit crimes, engage in dangerous activities, or engage in self-harming behaviour;
• Materials designed to provoke or upset people, such as “trolling” or bullying, or designed to harass, harm, injure, frighten, distress, embarrass, or upset people;
• Materials containing a threat of any kind, including threats of physical violence;
• Racist or discriminatory material, including discrimination based on race, religion, age, gender, disability, or sexuality;
• Responses, reactions, comments, opinions, analysis, or recommendations for which you are not properly licensed, or otherwise qualified;
• Materials that, in our judgment, are offensive, restrict, or inhibit others from using the Platform or that could expose us, or users to harm or liability of any kind.

We reserve the right to block relevant content or accounts temporarily or permanently at any time and without prior notice if, at our discretion, there has been a breach of these Terms of Use, in particular, the obligations set out above, or if the breach is otherwise harmful to the Platform, our users or third parties.

5. Ownership Structure

5.1. Your materials and contents

We do not claim ownership of the content that you post or transmit through the Platform (“your content”), but you grant us a licence to use it. Nothing changes concerning your rights in your content. Therefore, you are free to share your content wherever you want. However, to provide the Platform, we require certain legal permissions (“licence”) from you. If you want to share content that is protected by intellectual property rights (such as photos, music, text, and/or video) on or in connection with our platform, you hereby grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable and worldwide licence to host, use, distribute, modify, perform, copy, publicly perform or display, translate and create derivative works from your content (subject to your privacy and app settings) for us to provide the Platform. See clause 6 about copyright for more information.

You or your licensor are the owners of your content. Any rights you grant in your content under these Terms of Use are provided on a “through-to-the-audience” basis.

We may further develop the Platform or offer it on other technical devices and in other media. The licence, therefore, entitles you to use your content for the provision of the Platform and its operation on all technical devices and in all media currently known and available in the future (“Permitted Devices”). It includes usage on mobile phones and other mobile end devices, personal computers, devices for the display of virtual reality applications, TV sets, game consoles, playback devices or applications installed in vehicles, “smart glass” glasses, smartwatches, and all other devices for the display and playback of media.

This licence ends when your content is deleted from our systems. You can delete content individually or all simultaneously – the latter by deleting your account.

5.2. Materials and contents from Voozme and other users

All content, software, images, text, graphics, illustrations, logos, patents, trademarks, platform marks, copyrights, photographs, audio files, videos, music files, and the look and feel of the Platform, as well as all related intellectual property rights (“Voozme Content” or “our content”) are either owned by or licensed to us. Using our content or any other materials made available on the Platform for any purpose other than as expressly permitted under these Terms of Use is strictly prohibited. Such content and materials may not be downloaded, copied, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, broadcast, displayed, sold, licensed, or otherwise exploited for any purpose without the prior express written consent of our licensors or us.

You are granted a non-exclusive, limited, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable, worldwide licence to access the Platform, subject to these Terms of Use. This licence also includes downloading the app to a Permitted Device and accessing our content through your use of the Platform, but solely for personal, non-commercial use and under these Terms of Use. You acknowledge and agree that this licence granted to you concerning the Platform will terminate automatically upon termination of your account or these Terms of Use.

6. Copyrights

We respect the intellectual property rights of others, including, of course, copyright. An author is the creator of a work. Anyone who puts their own and personal idea into a recordable form is an author. This term thus includes authors, composers, choreographers, designers, painters, sculptors, inventors, programmers, and other professional groups who have created a work as a result of productive and creative work. The author has the right to decide on the exploitation of his work.

In general, copyright protects an original expression of an idea (e.g., the specific way a video or music is expressed).

The use of content that infringes copyrights is not permitted on our Platform. We do not allow the usage of content that is protected by copyright without lawful authorisation. Such use violates our Terms of Use and may result in the blocking or permanent termination of the user account, as well as may constitute an infringement.

Therefore, to ensure that the content you post on the Platform does not infringe copyright, it is best only to post content you have created yourself and avoid underpinning your video with copyrighted music.

Suppose you are a composer or author of a musical work and are affiliated with a collecting society. In that case, you must notify the collecting society of the royalty-free licence you are granting us to your content in accordance with these Terms of Use. It is solely your responsibility to ensure that you comply with the notification requirements and any other provisions of the collecting society agreement to which you are subject. If you have assigned your rights to a music publisher, you must obtain that music publisher’s consent in order to grant the royalty-free licences granted under these Terms of Use in respect of your content. The mere fact that you are the author of a musical work (e.g., you have written a song) does not mean that you are entitled to grant us the licences described in these Terms of Use. It is your responsibility to ensure that your use of the Platform is in accordance with any contractual obligations you may have to a third party.

6.1. Deletion of content, blocking, or termination of the account

We will delete content that violates the copyrights of others. In the event of multiple violations of these Terms of Use by a user, particularly copyright violations in connection with the Platform, we reserve the right to block the user’s account temporarily or permanently or even delete the account completely.

When posting other people’s content on the Platform, you may be infringing their copyright or enabling copyright infringement, even if you:

• Have purchased or downloaded the content from relevant providers;
• Have named the copyright owner;
• Have listed a disclaimer making it clear that you do not intend to infringe copyright;
• Recorded the content on your recording device (e.g., a song playing in the background during a party, concert, sporting event, and wedding);
• Did not intend to make a profit;
• Found the content on the Internet;
• Have created a work in the course of your employment. This may be because you have contractually assigned the copyright in your work exclusively to your employer or because the law considers your employer to be the author of the work for copyright law;
• Have seen that others have also posted the same content.

These are merely illustrative examples and do not claim to be an exhaustive list.

6.2. Procedure in the event of copyright infringement

As a Platform provider, the law requires us to provide you with an internal dispute resolution procedure to resolve copyright infringements quickly and efficiently. However, of course, this does not deprive you of the right to assert your rights in court if necessary.

If a copyright holder wishes to report an infringement of his copyright, he can do so via the e-mail address support@voozme.com to request the removal of the allegedly infringing content. When doing so, he must submit all information and evidence of authorship. Missing information may result in the complaint not being processed in a timely manner or the complaint being rejected. Upon receipt of all relevant information, we will review the complaint and make our best efforts to ensure that the copyrighted work is no longer available on the Platform.

The user who posted the infringing content will then be informed of this and can submit a counterstatement to the complaint with appropriate information to the e-mail address support@voozme.com, justifying further publication of the blocked content and showing that the content does not infringe third-party copyrights.

We will forward the counterstatement to the complaining party and, where appropriate, include the user’s contact details to enable direct problem resolution.

Since there are also legally permitted uses of works, such as quotations, parodies, and caricatures, not every complaint from an author will result in the blocking or deleting of a user’s content. What exceptions and limitations to copyright apply may vary from country to country. However, as a general rule, if you are allowed to use copyrighted works, you should take care not to harm the interests of the copyright holder.

Please check your claims carefully before reporting an infringement. It is a serious matter that can potentially lead to legal consequences and may trigger high costs. In addition, misleading or fraudulent reporting of copyright infringement may result in action by us, such as deactivation or deletion of your account or legal action against you, if appropriate.

7. Trademark rights

Just like copyrights, you must respect and not infringe the trademark rights of third parties. Trademark law protects the trademark´s owner against unauthorised use of the protected sign. A trademark is a legally protected sign (this can be in a word, logo, slogan, symbol, or a combination of these elements) that serves to distinguish goods, products, or platforms of a company from competing goods, products, or platforms of other companies.

7.1. Deletion of content, blocking or termination of the account

We will delete content that violates the trademark rights of others. Furthermore, in the event of multiple violations of these Terms of Use by a user, in particular copyright violations in connection with the Platform, we reserve the right to block the user’s account temporarily or permanently or even delete the account completely.

7.2. Procedure in the event of trademark infringements

Suppose a trademark right holder wishes to report an infringement of his trademark rights. In that case, he can do so via the e-mail address support@voozme.com to request the removal of the allegedly infringing content. In doing so, he must submit all information and evidence relating to the trademark rights. Missing information may result in the complaint not being processed in a timely manner or the complaint being rejected. Upon receipt of all relevant information, we will review the complaint and make our best efforts to ensure that the infringing content is no longer available on the Platform.

The user who posted the infringing content will then be informed of this and may submit a counterstatement to the complaint with relevant information to the e-mail address support@voozme.com, justifying further publication of the blocked content and stating that the content does not infringe third party trademark rights and requesting the withdrawal of the complaint.

As there are also legally permitted uses of trademarks, not every complaint by a trademark right holder leads to blocking or deletion of user content, which exceptions and restrictions in trademark law may vary from country to country.

Therefore, please check your claims carefully before reporting an infringement. It is a serious matter that can potentially lead to legal consequences and may trigger high costs. In addition, misleading or fraudulent reporting of trademark infringement may result in action on our part, such as deactivation/deletion of your account or legal action against you, as appropriate.

8. Liability waiver

The information and materials presented in your content and others content are neither reviewed nor approved by us. Neither the views expressed therein nor the reactions of other users to the content reflect our views or values.

All content must comply with the Terms of Use, particularly the rules on copyright and trademark rights. In the event of violations of these rules by you, you are liable to us and undertake to indemnify us in this respect and hold us harmless from claims by third parties. Your liability also includes the reimbursement of reasonable legal defence costs.

9. Liability of Voozme

 9.1. General liability

We are liable for damages exclusively in accordance with this clause. Without limitation, we are liable for damages from life, body and health injury based on an injury by one of our representatives or fulfilment assistants and for damages resulting from the non-observance of a quality guarantee or fraudulent deception. In addition, we shall be liable without limitation for damage caused by us, our legal representatives, or vicarious agents through intent or gross negligence. In the event of a slightly negligent breach of a primary contractual obligation, we shall be liable, except in the above cases, only up to the amount of the typically foreseeable damage. In the abstract, primary contractual obligations are those whose compliance makes the proper fulfilment of the contract possible in the first place and on whose compliance a contracting party may regularly rely on. Liability under the Product Liability Act remains unaffected. The statutory limitation periods shall apply. The statutory warranty rights shall apply.

We are in no way responsible for any mobile charges you may incur from using the Platform. You are responsible for all mobile charges, including any costs incurred for sending text messages or data usage. If you are unsure of any charges you may incur, you must check with your mobile platform provider before using the Platform.

9.2. Correctness and completeness of the contents

We offer a Platform that allows users to post their own content and view the content of others. All users are responsible for the information and content they post on the Platform.

We make no warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, integrity, adequacy and/or quality of any content posted by you and others on the Platform.

10. Amendment of the Terms of Use

Our Platform is continuously growing. Therefore, it will be necessary to update these Terms of Use from time to time and to adapt them to changes in the law.

If we change these Terms of Use, we will give you at least 14 days’ notice before the changes take effect, unless otherwise required. When we notify you of changes, we will provide you with the new version of the Terms of Use and advise you of the material changes. If you do not object before the changes come into effect, you will be deemed to have accepted the changed terms. We will explain this objection procedure in our notice to you. You can refuse to accept the changes. In this case, the changes will not apply to you, but we reserve the right to terminate our relationship with you.

11. Applicable Law

For these Terms of Use, German law applies to the exclusion of international private law. In addition, the mandatory consumer protection provisions that apply in the state in which you have your habitual residence apply to consumers insofar as they grant you the protection that is more extensive.

12. No Renunciation

If you do not comply with this agreement and we do not take action immediately, this does not mean we waive any rights (e.g., the right to take action in the future).

13. Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG)

Although Voozme is a tele media platform provider within the meaning of the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), the Act does not currently apply to us pursuant to § 1 para. 2 NetzDG.