Terms Of Service for Postcrossing.com

You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using postcrossing.com. Your use of postcrossing.com and its offers indicates your acceptance of these terms. Do not use postcrossing.com if you do not agree with the terms.

An overview:

We (the Postcrossing team) run a website to share our love of postcards and mail and we would love for you to use it. To participate, you have to arrange your own postcards and postage, but our service is provided for free. Our service is designed to respect and protect your privacy while still enabling you to connect with others around the world who share your interest in postcards and mail. However, we expect your participation to be done in a responsible and respectful way.

Scope of this Agreement

The Website postcrossing.com is owned and operated by Postcrossing, Lda (hereinafter referred as "Postcrossing"). The following terms and conditions (hereinafter referred to as “Terms”) represent the exclusive basis for the legal relationships established between Postcrossing and the agreement partners (hereinafter referred to as “users” or “you”).

Website & Subject of Agreement

The Website is an online platform which provides services that enables its members to exchange postcards and share their common interest in postcards and mail, share comments, opinions and ideas and participate in contests and promotions made available on the Website.

Services include access to a rich collection of resources, including but not limited to, various communication tools, forums, search services, image galleries, blog, personalized content, as well as the offering of any materials displayed, transmitted or performed on the Website or through the Services. Content ("Content") includes, but it is not limited to text, comments, messages, information, data, graphics, photographs, news articles, images, illustrations and software on the website and on social networks.

You also understand and agree that the Service may include advertisements and that these advertisements are necessary for Postcrossing to provide the Service.

Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any new features that augments or enhances the current Service shall be subject to the Terms.

Your use and access of the Website may be interrupted from time to time as a result of equipment malfunction, updates, maintenance or repair of the Website or any other reason within or outside of the control of Postcrossing. You understand and agree that the Services are provided "AS-IS" and that Postcrossing assumes no responsibility for the timeliness, deletion, misdelivery or failure to store any user data.

Postcrossing reserves the right to suspend or discontinue the availability of the Website and/or of any Service and/or remove any Content at any time at its sole discretion and without prior notice.

No agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment is created as a result of the Terms and you do not have any authority of any kind to bind Postcrossing in any respect whatsoever. The failure of either party to exercise in any respect any right provided for herein shall not be deemed a waiver of any further rights hereunder. Postcrossing shall not be liable for any failure to perform its obligations hereunder where such failure results from any cause beyond Postcrossing's reasonable control, including, without limitation, mechanical, electronic or communications failure or degradation.

Registration

When you create an account in the Website, you are required to select a username, a password and enter other registration information required for your participation such as, but not limited to, your email address and your postal address to which our Privacy Policy applies. The registration information you provide must be accurate, complete, and current at all times. Failure to do so constitutes a breach of the Terms, which may result in immediate termination of your account.

You may not use as a username the name of another person or entity or that is not lawfully available for use, a name or trademark that is subject to any rights of another person or entity other than you without appropriate authorization, or a name that is otherwise offensive, vulgar or obscene.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and are solely responsible for all activities resulting from the use of your password and conducted through the use of your Postcrossing account. Your password shall not be provided to third parties and must be kept in a location that is protected against third-party access.

You may not enter the postal address of another person or entity unless you have appropriate and verifiable authorization and that it respects the Postcrossing Community Guidelines.

The Website Services are available only to individuals who are either (i) at least 13 years old, or (ii) who are under the age of 13 years old and who are authorized to access the Website by a parent or legal guardian. If you have authorized a minor to use the Website, you are responsible for the online conduct of such minor, and the consequences of any misuse of the Website by the minor. Parents and legal guardians are warned that the Website may display postcard images and other content that may be offensive to some.

The Services are for personal use by individuals or groups of individuals without a commercial purpose. Accounts may not be opened by businesses or for third parties. If you do not qualify for registration, you are not permitted to open an account or use the Services.

Postcrossing is concerned about the safety and privacy of all its users. However, it may access, preserve, and/or disclose your account information and/or Content if required to do so by law, or in a good faith belief that such access, preservation, or disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) comply with legal process, (b) enforce the Terms; (c) respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third parties, (d) respond to your requests for customer services, or (e) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Postcrossing, its users, and/or the public. For more information, please check our Privacy Policy.

You may not misuse the website for illegal or unauthorized purposes.

User conduct

All Content posted or otherwise submitted to the Website is the sole responsibility of the account holder from which such Content originated and you acknowledge and agree that you, and not Postcrossing, are entirely responsible for all Content that you post, or otherwise submit to the Website. Postcrossing does not actively control nor moderate user submitted Content and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of such Content. You understand that by using the Website you may be exposed to Content that you may consider objectionable.

Postcrossing is entitled to remove questionable content on its own and to delete any content submitted by you in culpable violation of the mentioned rules and regulations of these Terms. You have to respect any applicable laws and regulations, especially with regard to youth protection, data privacy, protection of personal rights, protection against slander and defamation, copyright laws and trademarks. Postcrossing respects the rights and the dignity of its users and third parties and will therefore delete any content that it deems discriminatory.

As a condition of use, you promise not to use the Services for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms, or any other purpose not reasonably intended by Postcrossing. By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree not to use the Services:

1. To abuse, harass, threaten, impersonate or intimidate any person;
2. To post or transmit, or cause to be posted or transmitted, any communication or solicitation designed or intended to obtain password, account, or private information from any Postcrossing user;
3. To create or transmit unwanted ‘spam’ to any person or any URL;
4. To post or transmit, or cause to be posted or transmitted, any Content that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, offensive, profane, or that infringes any copyright or other right of any person;
5. For any purpose (including posting or viewing Content) that is not permitted under the laws of the jurisdiction where you use the Services;
6. To post copyrighted Content which doesn’t belong to you;
7. With the exception of accessing RSS feeds, you will not use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the Website for any purpose without our express written permission. Additionally, you agree that you will not:
   1. take any action that may impose in our sole discretion an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
   2. interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website or any activities conducted on the Website; or
   3. bypass any measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Website;
8. To advertise to, or solicit, any user to buy or sell any products or services, or to use any information obtained from the Services in order to contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any user without their prior explicit consent;
9. To sell or otherwise transfer your account.

To report a suspected abuse of the Website or a breach of the Terms please send written notice to Postcrossing at email: support@postcrossing.com.

You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of the Website. Postcrossing reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other users.

Postcrossing is also entitled to exclude offending users from continued use of the website and the services without prior warning, and to terminate an account if it deems necessary at its sole discretion. If the offending user creates a new account despite written notice, Postcrossing reserves the right to pursue legal action against the offender.

Please be aware that Postcrossing does not have control over the uploaded content on the website and services and that Postcrossing does not evaluate the uploaded content before it is made public.

Content Submitted Or Made Available For Inclusion On The Service

Postcrossing is not responsible for any information, data, text, photographs, graphics, video, messages, tags, or other material (collectively referred to herein as “Content”) posted by Users of the Website. Postcrossing makes no representations with respect to the accuracy, integrity, or quality of any such Content, and shall not in any way be liable for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available via the Service.

You are solely responsible for any Content posted by you on the Site or offered by you through a Service, including, without limitation, for any errors or omissions in any Content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content posted, emailed, transmitted, or otherwise made available via the Services. You represent that you have the right to post or transmit such Content. You are solely responsible for protecting and enforcing any intellectual property and other rights in your Content; Postcrossing shall have no obligation to do so on your behalf.

Grant of Rights

You maintain all rights to the uploaded content. By submitting content to the community or service(s) by Postcrossing, you grant Postcrossing a non-exclusive, revocable license, free of charge, to publicly offer, display, reproduce and distribute such information. Postcrossing is authorized to use or distribute uploaded content outside of our Website or service(s), such as social networks.

By submitting information, the user acknowledges and accepts that the uploaded content on the website can be accessed globally through the Internet. With the uploading of such information, the user agrees to these conditions.

The aforementioned license does not end at the time when the contract with the user is terminated.

Services offered by Third Parties

Postcrossing reserves the right to refer to third party offers or digital media and to cooperate with third party services, pursuant to our Privacy Policy.

These third party offers are not subject to these Terms.

Changes of these Terms

Postcrossing reserves the right to change or amend these Terms with regard to future arrangements at any given time, provided this is deemed necessary and if you are not put at a disadvantage in a breach of good faith.

You will be notified in an appropriate manner in writing of the changes made to the Terms. As a general rule, such announcements are usually published by email or during sign in on the website.

You can object to the changes made in the Terms within 14 days upon publishing the notification and their receipt by you. If you do not object to the changes made in the Terms after publication and receipt of the notification of these changes in writing within 14 days and submit your objection(s) to us, the Terms which were changed or amended will be considered legally binding with respect to you. If you object within the set time limit, both parties are entitled to terminate this agreement. Further claims by you are considered hereby invalid.

Postcrossing may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the Website. Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the Terms.

Limitation of Liability and Indemnity

Postcrossing is in no case liable other than for gross negligence or intentionally caused damage. This does not apply to liability for injury to life and limb, or in the event we have assumed a warranty. Liability for breach of a cardinal obligation or an essential obligation is limited to the damage that could have been foreseen. The following exclusions and limitations of liability apply with regard to Postcrossing’s liability for damage compensation, notwithstanding the other legal claim requirements.

Postcrossing assumes unlimited liability if the cause of the damage is the result of intent or gross negligence.

If the liability of Postcrossing is excluded or limited, this also applies for personal liability of employees, representatives, agents or assistants.

You hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless Postcrossing, its affiliated and associated companies, and their respective owners, directors, officers, employees, agents, representatives, independent and dependent contractors, licensees, successors and assigns from and against all claims, losses, expenses, damages and costs (including, but not limited to, direct, incidental, consequential, exemplary and indirect damages), and reasonable attorneys' fees, resulting from or arising out of (i) a breach of these Terms, (ii) Content posted on the Website, (iii) the use of the Services, by you or any person using your account or Postcrossing username and password, or (iv) any violation of any rights of a third party.

Warranties

No warranties of any type or kind shall be deemed to have been given by Postcrossing in respect of the website and/or the service including any terms relating to quality, performance, suitability or fitness for purpose. This includes all service elements from us but all third-party elements as well.

Postcrossing does not warrant that the software will be entirely free from defects or that the operation of the software will be entirely error-free.

Final Clauses

If any provision of the Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that the Terms shall otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable. Postcrossing may transfer, assign or delegate the Terms and its rights and obligations without consent.

The law of the Portuguese Republic exclusively applies to all contracts concluded by us based on these Terms and to any further kind of claims arising thereof; to the exclusion of provisions pertaining to the UN Convention on contracts for the international sale of goods and to the exclusion of Portuguese International Private Law.

The place of fulfillment and jurisdiction shall be Porto, Portugal.