Art. 1 General
1.1. FreeDiscussions S.r.l. (hereafter "Provider") offers access to use of the Usenet service (hereafter "Service") through the website www.freediscussions.com (hereafter "Website"), exclusively on the basis of these General Terms and Conditions.
1.2. By expressly agreeing to the applicability of the General Terms and Conditions on the website, entering the requested details in the registration form provided and transmitting those details to the Supplier, the Customer (hereafter “Customer”) declares acceptance of the validity of these General Terms and Conditions.
Art. 2 Contract subject matter
2.1.The Provider will provide the Customer with technical access to the servers available from third parties for the global Usenet service.
2.2. The Provider, who does not operate own news servers, does not publish or administer himself, or through third parties, any content on the connected servers of the global Usenet service.
Art. 3 Registration for the Service
3.1. Only natural persons of full age are entitled to register on the Website for access to the Service. Legal/juristic persons are excluded from Registration.
3.2. The Provider is not obligated to accept a Customer as a member and reserves the explicit right to refuse any Registration or acceptance without providing reasons.
3.3. With Registration for the Service, the Customer is obligated to provide the following personal data completely and correctly: surname, first name, address and telephone number, valid e-mail address and payment information according to the selected payment method (wire transfer, credit card, PayPal, iDeal).
The Customer declares that he is the lawful owner of the payment information specified by him or an authorized representative. The Customer shall be obligated to provide evidence of suitable power of attorney.
3.4.In order to be able to use the Service and member area on the Website, the Customer will receive a user name and password during Registration (hereafter "Access Data"). For access to the Service, the Customer requires an Internet-capable computer system and a program for reading the articles.
Art. 4 Download quota
4.1. Prior to conclusion of the contract, the Customer must define with the Provider, the term of his contractual commitment and the monthly download quota.
4.2. The download quota is the data quantity that the Customer can transfer on a monthly basis, from Usenet, through third party servers, onto his computer.
4.3. If the Customer has fully utilised his download quota, he has the opportunity to access the affected quota for the following month under the "More volumes" option in the user area. The length of the contract remains constant despite the time packages are downloaded.
4.4. Upon expiration of every monthly period, the unused portion of the download quota made available to the Customer shall also expire.
In the following situations, the claim to a proportional refund is excluded:
• With a lower or no data retrieval by the Customer, compared to the maximum quantity agreed for the respective month.
• If the download quota for the respective subsequent month is pre-empted, the download quota for the running, currently activate month will lapse.
The administration of the download quota and therefore the measurement of whether the quota for the currently activated month will be fully utilised, before the quota for the respective following month is pre-empted, or the respective following month begins, will exclusively be carried out by the Customer.
4.5. The Provider only provides the monthly agreed download quota within the technical service limits of the Service, under consideration of the provision of services agreed with other Customers. The entitlement of the Customer to access the data of the quota for the following month is therefore not created automatically.
The Provider has the right to limit the data transfer and possibly block the Customer’s or third parties’ access to the Website and to the Service, if the technical performance of the Service is impaired or the Provider has reason to assume that the Customer or third parties are using the Service in an unauthorised or abusive manner, particularly as described under Art. 9. The Provider will immediately inform the Customer by e-mail about such a measure. If the Provider should not succeed in providing the contractually guaranteed quota for the respective month, the Provider will credit this quota for the subsequent month or extend the contract term by one month.
Art. 5 Contract conclusion
5.1. By going through the signup process, the Customer imparts an offer to the Provider to conclude the contract. The Provider reserves the right to reject this offer without reason. The signup process is comprised of the following steps:
• The customer provides his name and contact details using the signup form
• The customer selects a payment method and provides his payment details using the signup form
• The customer confirms his acceptance of the terms of purchase by marking the relevant checkbox
• The customer sends the accomplished signup form by clicking on the purchase button
5.2. The contract between the Provider and the Customer will be regarded as concluded from the date on which the Provider confirms acceptance of the Registration to the Customer and sends the User Login Data to the Customer.
Art. 6 Payment regulations
6.1. The applicable prices are those, which are valid at the time of contract conclusion and which the Customer has acknowledged upon conclusion of the contract. The membership fee for the entire term of the contract is payable in advance. When payment is made via a SEPA direct debit mandate, the deadline for notifying the customer that the amount will be debited from their bank account is reduced to one day.
6.2. The Provider can adjust the prices for the agreed contractual services, subject to the following conditions.
The Provider will notify the Customer by e-mail about planned price increases at least four weeks prior to them taking effect.
From the time of receiving the notification regarding the price increase, the Customer has a right to cancellation until the time of the planned price increase coming into effect. If no cancellation takes place within the prescribed period, the price increase will be regarded as accepted.
The provider will exercise this right maximal one time per quarter to adjust fees and charges to changing market conditions, changes to the VAT rate, or significant changes in purchasing costs.
Price falls come into effect from the announced date. For the Customer’s membership fees, a reduction will come into effect as of the following, contractually agreed time period, unless something different has been notified.
6.3. If the bank rejects a payment due for want of cover on the account or because the Customer cancelled the agreed direct debit, the Provider will invoice all arising expenses per rejected or cancelled direct debit. This amount will increase by the respective bank fees, plus the amount that has been contractually agreed.
If the Customer is more than ten days in default with his payment, or if the Customer has provided false or improper payment information to the Provider, the Provider shall be authorised to block access to the Service, after he has issued a reminder for the payment and pointed to the imminent blocking of the Service.
However, blocking access to the Service does not represent exercising the cancellation right.
When access to the Service is blocked, the Customer will continue to be obligated to pay the amounts falling due to the Provider.
The Provider reserves its right to assert more extensive damage claims and to rescind the contract in the case of continuing default.
If Provider determines, in its sole discretion, that the customer is in breach of this Agreement, Provider may immediately commence efforts to collect any and all amounts due and owing by customer pursuant to this Agreement, or Provider may place this Agreement with a collection agency or attorney for collection which may result in additional charges of up to US$ 40.00. The Provider shall be entitled to recover all damages, costs, fees, and expenses incurred for the collection of any and all amounts due and owing by customer purusant to this Agreement, including but not limited to fees and costs of any collection agency, attorneys fees, interest on unpaid amounts, court costs, and filing fees.
Art. 7 Duties of the Customer
7.1.For all changes to personal data used for the Registration or payment details, the Customer is obligated to either amend his profile in the customer section of the Website or notify the Provider of the changes using the support form or by e-mail.
The Customer can find the contact data for this purpose on www.freediscussions.com under the legal stipulations.
7.2. After Registration for the Service, the Customer is obligated to treat the Access Data to the Website and the Access Data to the customer program confidentially. In order to avoid any unauthorised and/or improper use of the Access Data, the customer will be obligated to keep this data in a safe place and not disclose it to any third party.
On no account, will the Provider be held liable for losses incurred or for loss of data incurred by the Customer due to unauthorised or improper use. In exceptional cases, the Provider will be held liable for losses incurred by the Customer due to the Provider infringing his contractual duties.
7.3. Information and communications associated with the contract shall be sent by the Provider via e-mail.The Customer is obligated to check his/her inbox at least once a week.
Furthermore, the Customer will ensure that he can receive the e-mails coming from FreeDiscussions, i.e. specifically coming from the "@freediscussions.com" domain. If the Customer uses anti-spam software or an e-mail service with such a function, he will configure it accordingly. The customer also agrees that the provider is allowed to send messages and information by e-mail or post regarding the function of the subscription service.
7.4. The contracting parties undertake to immediately inform each other of any unauthorized and / or abuse of the access data.
In case of unauthorized and/ or improper use or a concrete suspicion the provider has the right to block the customer's access after he was informed and to exclude the customer temporarily or permanently from using some or all parts of the service.
Art. 8 Contractual term and cancellation
8.1.1. The contract is completed for an agreed upon contract duration.
8.1.2. The client can change from one product package to another before the end of the contract that is currently running. If this happens, then the contract term is extended to the length that is stipulated in the product description of the new package that has been chosen. If the customer has brought forward parts of their data contingent, but not used it and they then change to a different product package, the data contingent that was brought forward until that moment expires.
8.2.1. The term of this agreement shall automatically be extended for a period equal to the term specified during the order process, unless the User terminates the agreement prior to expiration of the applicable contract period.
8.3.1. The Customer is entitled to cancel the contract at any time. The cancellation will come into effect upon receipt by the Provider. A claim to a refund of the payments made for the selected and confirmed term of the contract is excluded.
8.3.2. For packages with a one-month term, the period of notice shall be 7 days to the end of the contract term.
8.3.3. For packages with a longer term, the period of notice shall be one month to the end of the contract term.
8.3.4. The special termination right for test periods can be terminated until expiration of the period.
8.4. Outside of the reasons explicitly specified in these General Terms and Conditions, the Provider reserves the right to cancel the contract for good cause, without prior announcement and without prior notification.
In case of a cancellation, regardless of which side carries this out, no payments made in advance will be refunded.
Art. 9 Money-Back Guarantee
(1) If the customer avails of a FreeDiscussions plan which comes with a Money-Back Guarantee, he shall have the right to terminate the contract within the first 30 days after conclusion without providing a reason for termination.
(2) In the case of an effective contract termination in accordance with clause (1) of this paragraph, the customer shall be refunded the full amount paid.
Art. 10 Cancellation right
Cancelation advice
Right of cancelation
You have the right to cancel this Agreement within fourteen days without stating reasons. The cancelation notice period is fourteen days from the date the Agreement is signed. In order to exercise your right of cancelation you must inform us:
FreeDiscussions S.r.l.
Piazza Enrico Enriquez 22
47891 Dogana
San Marino
E-Mail: [email protected]
by making a clear statement (e.g. by a mailed letter or email) of your decision to cancel this Agreement. You may use the enclosed sample cancelation form to do so although it is not mandatory to use it. You can also complete and send the sample cancelation form or other clear statement electronically on our website www.freediscussions.com/en/support/contact
If you use this option we will immediately send you (e.g. by email) confirmation of receipt of such a cancelation. The cancelation notice period is deemed to be complied with if you dispatch the notice that you are exercising your right of cancelation prior to the expiry of the cancelation notice period.
Consequences of cancelation
If you cancel this Agreement we must repay to you all payments we have received from you including delivery costs (with the exception of the additional costs arising from the fact that you have chosen a different type of delivery from the cheapest standard delivery offered by us) immediately and within no later than fourteen days after the date on which we have received the notice that you are canceling this Agreement. For this repayment we shall use the same payment method you used for the original transaction unless a different method has expressly been agreed with you; under no circumstances will you be charged fees for this repayment. If you have requested the services to begin during the cancelation notice period, you must pay us a reasonable amount corresponding to the proportion of services already provided up to the time at which you notify us of the exercise of the cancelation right relating to this Agreement compared with the total extent of the services provided for in the Agreement.
End of cancelation advice
Art. 11 Use of the Service, protection of minors, unauthorized use
11.1. According to the provisions in Art. 3 in these General Terms and Conditions, no content will be disclosed or administered by the Provider on the servers held available by third parties. The content of the forums/available articles on the servers of the worldwide Usenet Service are set up by third parties and also fall under their responsibility. The use of Usenet takes place exclusively at the risk and peril of the Customer.
The Provider rejects the liability and responsibility for all types of content retrieved from the Usenet servers by the Customer, particularly for the correctness and completeness of the content or its reconcilability with valid national or international law.
If the Customer provides minors with access to the Internet and Usenet using the Access Data provided by the Provider, the Customer will exclusively assume the liability for this. The Customer is aware that some content in Usenet may not be suitable for minors.
It is the nature of the discussion forums that are freely accessible to everyone that they could possibly contain harmful, damaging, imprecise or protected, or in some cases, untruthful or otherwise misleading texts in another form.
With the use of the Service, the Customer is obligated to allow prudence, reason and healthy judgement to prevail and comply with legal regulations.
11.2.The Customer agrees to assumption of liability for this information and the resulting consequences. He agreed to use of the Service and the Usenet solely for receiving and sending content or articles, which reconcile with the regulations of these General Terms and Conditions. Within the context of using the Service, the Customer is specifically obligated to refrain from the following:
• Defaming, threatening or inciting hate against others, or infringing the rights of others in any form.
• Disclosing, sending, downloading onto the server, forwarding, sending or offering any type of information and documents, which violate rights or are defamatory, derogative, and harmful and primarily represent, or could represent, impairment of public order and morality or the private life of the other party.
• Disclosing, sending, downloading onto the server, forwarding, sending or offering documents, which violate a patent, a registered brand or trademark, prototypes and models, copyrights, business secrets or all other third party rights, unless the Customer owns the said rights to intellectual property or if its owner has explicitly allowed the Customer to distribute or forward these documents.
• Advertising or offering products or services, also for private purposes, except for those that are envisaged for this purpose in Usenet.
• Offering surveys, competitions, sales systems with a snowball effect or chain letters, or forwarding these, except in the areas that are intended for this purpose in the community.
• Downloading of documents posted by other users in the Usenet, of which the Customer knew, or reasonably should have known, that their distribution in this form is illegal.
The Customer is permanently obligated to maintain conduct that does not infringe national or international laws. If the Customer is aware of incidents such as those listed above - this listing does not claim to be complete - he is requested to immediately inform the Provider under the address [email protected] and describe the storage location or the illegal documents themselves.
Art. 12 Liability limitations
12.1. The entire content on the servers, to which the Provider grants access, comes from third party servers, with which the servers to which the Provider grants access to his Customer automatically exchange data constantly.
In this context, the Customer is properly informed that content that is accessible to him through the Service does not originate from the Provider, but rather, from third parties.
Therefore, under no circumstances, will the Provider assume any liability for the said content, over which he exercises no control at any time.
12.2. The Provider shall only be held liable for losses due to deliberate acts or gross negligence that he has committed himself or have been committed by an employee or legal representative of the Provider.
The Provider specifically excludes any liability, regardless of the nature or reason, for content that is distributed on the Internet and/or Usenet, or is made accessible through these networks.
The Provider excludes any liability for the data downloaded by the Customer at Usenet. This includes when the Customer receives access through a link in the software provided by FreeDiscussions or an Internet Website of the Provider. The Customer acknowledges that use of the Internet entails uncertainties (viruses, trojans, attacks by Internet pirates, etc.).
The possible resulting losses and costs will be at the expense of the Customer.
12.3.On no account, will the Provider be held liable for losses or loss of data incurred and/or suffered by the Customer, caused by unauthorised or improper use.
In exceptional cases, however, in a concrete case, the Provider will assume the liability for the loss incurred by the Customer due to the infringement by the Provider against the contractual duties.
12.4. The Provider cannot guarantee permanent access to the Service or constant use of the Service. However, he will be obligated to offer correct access to the Service within the limits of his technical possibilities. Therefore, the Provider will be held liable only for the case of losses caused due to non-accessibility or impaired usability of the Service, where the loss has been deliberately caused by the Provider or as a result of gross negligence.
The Provider is specifically not liable for speed bottlenecks in connections to the Service or unintended or non-culpable failure of the Service.
Art. 13 Changes to the Service and the conditions of use
13.1.The Service is accessible to the Customer 24 hours a day. The total or partial access to the Service can specifically be suspended or entirely discontinued, at the discretion of the Provider, in case of force majeure, difficulties with data processing or technical difficulties, difficulties in the structure of the telecommunication network, blocking of the telecommunication network, strike, international or regional emergency or storms. This list does not claim to be complete.
The Service can also be disrupted for maintenance reasons.
The Service and the Website are subject to changes and developments. These include a change to the functions at any time without prior notification, to the extent that this does not cause disadvantages for the Customer. The Provider has the option of replacing access to the Service with another, easy-to-use, technical means of access.
Changes to the Service can take place on the basis of legal changes, technical conditions or due to regulations or instructions from public authorities. If the Provider should omit significant parts of the Service, he will inform the Customer in writing or by e-mail.
Under this assumption, the Customer has the right to cancel the contract within four (4) weeks after the omission of the relevant Service or technical function. If Customer does not do this, the omission of a Service or technical change will be regarded as accepted.
The Provider reserves the right to replace, modify or terminate the voluntary services within this Service. The Customer cannot derive any entitlement to retaining or using specific, voluntary services from the use of the options offered to him by the Provider.
13.2. The Provider has the right to modify or complete these General Terms and Conditions, subject to compliance adequate prior notice. The Customer can object to significant technical changes within a period of four (4) weeks from receipt of the modified General Terms and Conditions. If the Customer does not object in writing or by e-mail, the modified General Terms and Conditions will take effect in place of the previous General Terms and Conditions after expiry of the notice period.
Art. 14 General provisions
14.1. These General Terms and Conditions are subject to the law of the Republic of San Marino.
The courts of San Marino are responsible for any legal disputes arising from the validity, interpretation and/or application of these General Terms and Conditions and the contract.
14.2. The Customer is only entitled to file own claims against similar types of claims by the Provider, if the Provider acknowledges the claims or if they have been legally established in favour of the Customer.
Modifications, amendments or subsidiary agreements to these General Terms and Conditions must be in writing and confirmed by an authorised representative of the Provider in order to be valid. The amendment or omission of this clause must also be in writing.
By means of a declaration, the Provider has the right to transfer the contract, with all related rights and duties to legal successors.
If the contract envisages that the parties must issue their declarations in writing, this means that the said declarations must be sent by post or e-mail to the address provided by the Customer and specified by the Provider. The declarations and invoices sent by e-mail shall be regarded as having been received one week after delivery to the Customer’s electronic mailbox, if they are not retrieved. If one or several provisions of the contract or one or several provisions of the General Terms and Conditions should be fully or partially invalid, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions or specific parts of these provisions from the contract and/or the General Terms and Conditions. If necessary, an invalid or missing regulation will be replaced by the closest legal stipulation, in commercial terms.
San Marino, 2023