Terms and Conditions

1. Terms and conditions of use

This Agreement contains the terms and conditions that apply to an individual's or an entity's participation in the Story Ocean™ digital story publishing platform, domain at www.story-ocean.com.

This Agreement is entered into by and between you and Story Ocean™ regarding your use of all aspects of the Story Ocean™ Service. By using the Service, you consent to be bound by these terms and conditions.

In this Agreement, "we", "our", "us", and "www.story-ocean.com" mean Story Ocean™ and its affiliates, and "you” or “your" means you the “website operator / writer / author / publisher / blogger / user of content / reader”.

Users of the Story Ocean™ digital story publishing platform (“Service”) use it to publish and read stories, and by the reading use, have these stories aggregated and compiled in various ways that are useful to both author and readers when using the Service.

If, for any reason, we believe that you have not complied with these requirements, we may, at our discretion, cancel your registration immediately and without giving you any advance notice.

Your participation with Story Ocean™ is governed by this agreement, the instructions and rules and the terms, conditions, policies, guidelines, and other information on the www.story-ocean.com website, each of which may be modified from time to time. In the event of any conflicts between any of this information, the terms of this Agreement control your participation.

2. License, Representation and Warranties

You warrant that you will not attempt to violate any of the content that is on the Service. Specifically this means you will not attempt to 'copy and paste' stories that are displayed on the Service.

You warrant that your online content will not violate or misappropriate any copyright, trademark or other intellectual property or other rights of any third party.

You warrant to us that any material you publish through the Service that you own the copyright, or have permission to publish the material, or otherwise comply with all appropriate copyright laws.

You warrant that your online content is not in breach of any law, including but not limited to, defamation law in any respective country.

You agree not to post material which is deliberately intended to upset or incite other people to violence or hatred. This includes but is not limited to content that is hate-related, violent or illegal.

We reserve the right to remove your access to the Service completely if we believe you are abusing the Services in any way.

You will not modify, adapt, translate, prepare derivative works from, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise attempt to derive source code from any Story Ocean™ Service, software, or documentation, or create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product through use of or access to the Service or proprietary information related thereto. You will not remove, obscure, or alter Story Ocean's copyright notice, branding, trademark, or other proprietary rights notices affixed to or contained within the Service.

You acknowledge that Story Ocean™ owns all rights, titles and interest, including without limitation all intellectual property rights, in and to the Service, and that you do not acquire any right, title, or interest in or to the Service except as expressly set forth in this Agreement.

From time to time Story Ocean™ will upgrade its Service and inform you of such an upgrade. Story Ocean™ reserves the right to discontinue old versions of the Service where we deem it no longer makes commercial sense to continue such service.

Story Ocean™™ owns and retains all intellectual property rights to the Service, and we do not claim ownership rights to your stories that you publish using our Service. That is, authors keep their copyright of their stories.

3. Users

You acknowledge matters to do with the transaction of monies for purchases of the Service are handled by third parties, such as PayPal, Stripe and credit card companies, and as such any problems arising from such transactions, that are outside our jurisdiction, are not our responsibility. Where we shall make every effort to resolve any such problems that may occur ultimately such matters have to be resolved with PayPal, Stripe or other credit card or banking institutions.

4. Authors and Publishing stories

i) The Author grants to Story Ocean™ a non-exclusive license to publish their story on a global basis. The author keeps ownership of their copyright.

ii) The Author agrees to give Story Ocean first option for any other licensing right such as, but not limited to: print, film, foreign language, television, merchandising, etc.

iii) The Author understands there is no advance royalty payment (worth mentioning here because this is standard in traditional publishing).

iv) The Author agrees and confirms they are the sole creator of the story. The Author indemnifies and holds harmless Story Ocean™ against any and all claims, actions, demands, etc. arising from the publication of the story. This includes, but is not limited to, actions involving plagiarism, fraud, and theft.

v) Story Ocean™ agrees to provide to the Author an online statement of sales and royalties owing (just as soon as this module of Story Ocean™ has been written). Story Ocean™ agrees to pay the royalties out on a regular basis as yet to be determined (but most likely will be monthly).

vi) Story Ocean™ agrees to pay the Author a royalty of 70% of all monies that are attributable to the sale of the story.

vii) This contract may be terminated at any time by either party with 60 days notice.

5. Indemnification

You indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Story Ocean™, its affiliated companies, and their respective officers, directors, employees, and agents against any claim, loss, damage, judgment, settlement, cost, expense, or other liability (including, without limitation, attorneys' fees) arising from or related to (a) the Service; (b) your alleged breach of any representations or warranty contained in this Agreement, or (c) any content you provide (collectively, "Claims"). You will use counsel reasonably satisfactory to us to defend each claim. If at any time we reasonably determine that any claim might adversely affect us, we may take control of the defense at your reasonable expense and without affecting your indemnification and hold harmless obligations. You may not consent to the entry of any judgment or enter into any settlement without our prior written consent, which we will not unreasonably withhold.

6. Disclaimer of liability

To the extent permitted at law, we do not accept any responsibility for any statement within any content you publish. We are not responsible for any external content. You are responsible for your own stories that you choose to publish through the Service. This applies to, but is not limited to, defamation law in any country.

We are not be liable for any loss caused as a result of your doing, or not doing, anything as a result of using the Service, even if you have been advised of the possibility of any such loss.

You can access other sites via links from Story Ocean™. These sites are not under our control and we are not responsible in any way for any of their content.

We give no warranties of any kind concerning Story Ocean™ or online content on affiliated sites that use the Service.

You acknowledge that any breach of these warranties may cause us damage or loss and you agree to indemnify us in full and permanently against any third party liabilities, claims, costs, loss or damage we incur as a result of using the Service, including consequential losses.

7. Publicity

You agree that we may use your name and logo in presentations, marketing materials, customer lists, financial reports, web site listings of customers, search results, and as referrals. If you wish to use Story Ocean’s name, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features you can so long as such use is in compliance with this Agreement and complies with how we use our brand and our brand-use guidelines.

8. Term of Agreement

The term of this Agreement begins when you register with Story Ocean™ and ends when terminated by either party.

You may terminate this Agreement at any time, with or without cause, by giving us written notice of such termination. Your termination is effective 30 days from the date we receive your written notice.

We may terminate this Agreement at any time, with or without cause, by giving you written notice of such termination, which is effective immediately or on a later date as specified in the notice.

9. Relationship of Parties

You and Story Ocean™ are independent contractors, and nothing in this Agreement creates any partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise, sales representative, or employment relationship, between the parties.

10. Variations

These terms may be varied from time to time. Please ensure that you review these terms and conditions regularly as you will be deemed to have accepted a variation if you continue to use the site after it has been posted.

11. Force Majeure

Although we will do our best to provide constant, uninterrupted access to Story Ocean™ and the Service, we do not guarantee this. We accept no responsibility or liability for any interruption or delay.

12. Governing law & jurisdiction

This agreement is governed by the appropriate jurisdiction of Story Ocean™’s choosing at the time of any dispute arising, and the parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction such courts.

13. Disputes

Any dispute relating to this Agreement (including any actual or alleged breach here of), any transactions or activities under this Agreement or your relationship with us or any of our affiliates in which the aggregate total claim for relief sought on behalf of one or more parties exceeds US$7,500 will be adjudicated in an appropriate court of Story Ocean's choosing, and you consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts.

14. Miscellaneous

You may not assign this Agreement, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent. Subject to that restriction, this Agreement will be binding on, inure to, and be enforceable against the parties and their respective successors and assigns.

Our failure to enforce your strict performance of any provision of this Agreement will not constitute a waiver of our right to enforce such provision or any other provision of this Agreement subsequently.

We will send all notices and other communication to you at the e-mail address you listed in your registration.

If any provision of this Agreement shall be deemed unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these terms and conditions and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

This Agreement represents the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the Service and supersedes any previous or contemporaneous oral or written agreements and understanding.