Special Terms and Conditions
for the use of the internet offer on “cocompose.com”
as account type “Creative User” (“Creative Account”)
Status 03.12.2008
Cambiz Seyed-Asgari & Jens-Peter Horvath (civil law association), Rofanstrasse 11, 81825 Munich, Germany, represented by Cambiz Seyed-Asgari and Jens-Peter Horvath (named in the following “cocompose” or “cocompose.com”), provides you, as “Creative User” with a “Creative Account”, advanced free ways of using the online offer from cocompose.com. These Special Terms and Conditions of Use (subsequently called “Special Conditions”) govern the special requirements which arise from the use of this special offer.
In addition to the General Terms and Conditions of compose.com (subsequently called “GTC”), the subsequent rules for users who use the online offer as “Creative User”, therefore apply.
C-1. General remarks
C-1.1 After registration, a “Creative User” can use advanced functions of the offer provided for this user type. These advanced functions enable the “Creative User” to take part in publicly visible community projects, the so-called “Shared Project”, in so far as it is not a case of closed community projects with a closed user group for which his participation is not authorised. The aim of such participation, in the context of community projects, is to contribute to an evolutionary process, which serves the communal creation of one or several community pieces of work, for example a song or a music video, etc. by several users.
C-1.2 The user can take part in community projects in accordance with the above-mentioned conditions, by launching a project himself, for example, or choosing a project that already exists and adding to this his own contributions in the form of medial content produced by him.
The addition of such content is carried out according to type via a corresponding upload or via entries in a corresponding user interface (subsequently called in summary “entries”). Entries from the user can be added to a community project in the form of music tracks, video tracks, graphics, text, text tracks and midi-tracks, control tracks or similar, as the case may be. These entries to be completed at the core of the project are subsequently called “pieces of work” or also “track”.
The pieces of work added to a community project by the user in this way are accessible to the public and can – in so far as nothing else is agreed in the following – be freely combined by other users and as a composing be saved, played and rated.
C-1.3 The “Creative User” can automatically use the same functions, which are also available for a “Simple User” (e.g. submit comments about „“Shared Projects” and the pieces of work contained in them). Moreover, he has the possibility of using the shop function in the offer, where the user can obtain free and chargeable content from the offer from cocompose.com. If the procurement of content is chargeable, the user is informed of it in detail, naming the respective price.
C-2. Services
C-2.1 After successful registration as “Creative User” and log-on to the system by entering the user name and the associated password, subsequently called “log-in”, the “Creative User” has the possibility of working with other users on community projects in accordance with the above-mentioned conditions. He has in common with these people the fact that they have also basically agreed publication and commercial use of their contributions by cocompose and its business partners and would like to use other functions of the offer provided for the Creative Account.
C-2.2 The following special services are available for the Creative User:
· Free account
· Participate in public community projects (“Shared Project”)
· Initiate/launch a public community project (“Shared Project”)
· Add to/comment on audio/video/cover/captions and lyrics for community projects
· Edit mode to protect from voting (i.e. adhere to edit/delete option for a piece of work e.g. to position tracks in the system only as a non-voteable idea).
· Programme online captions (e.g. for subtitling lyrics, like karaoke)
· Download tracks on his own system as an mp3 for editing purposes
· Opportunity for earning money through sharing in the redemption value realised through the use of the piece of work in accordance with the rules listed in these Special Conditions.
· cocompose account for the billing of royalties and in so far as a credit shows, for payment of chargeable downloads
· Option of adding a user picture/icon and/or a user profile to the account which is publicly displayed with the user’s pieces of work.
C-3. Rights and obligations of the user
C-3.1 There is the opportunity for the “Creative Users” to download certain pieces of work available independent of the shop function straight into the community projects in which he takes part or intends to take part to coordinate his piece of work with other users (subsequently called “developer download”).
C-3.2 The “Creative User” agrees to undertake such a developer download solely for the purposes of collaboration on a corresponding cocompose.com project or a cocompose.com project resulting from it. Any ulterior use of developer download, in particular the misappropriated assembling of individual pieces of work obtained as developer download and/or the spreading and/or the publication of individual pieces of works or combinations created by joining together such pieces of work, and in particular the use of these pieces of work in projects outside of cocompose.com, is prohibited.
C-3.3 Moreover, the “Creative User” undertakes to delete pieces of work which he has obtained as developer download from all his data carriers at the latest as soon as a collaboration on a project in question or one resulting from that is no longer justified.
C-3.4 In so far as the entries undertaken by the user in the context of the cocompose.com portal are concerned, the conditions named under C-4 apply in addition to the rules in the GTC.
C-3.6 By participating in a community project, the user agrees not to make any claims to communally created audio or multimedia composings as such, in particular the pieces of work of other users, even if his piece of work is part of a communally created composing, whose co-author he is. Without agreement from cocompose, the user is not entitled to replicate, recreate or publish composings created together with other users in cocompose projects outside the cocompose.com platform, or to market or draw up marketing contracts concerning such composings created at cocompose.com with third parties; not even if in modified or revised form.
C-4. Entries
C-4.1 The “Creative User” agrees to observe the following when entering audio, video, image, captions, lyrics and other contents as the case may be:
a) Audio/video tracks or cover images may not be of obvious or clearly audible inferior quality (powerful noise, extremely hollow sound, bad image quality, etc.). Exception: a track taken on as an “idea”, which is however to be immediately set to the status “in work” and to be left like that.
b) When uploading audio/video/ or image content, the user is to inform himself of possible requirements, given limitations and the respective data formats, resolution formats, compression stages, data rates, file sizes, etc. on the relevant upload page and adhere to the ones specified.
The relevant information is either contained on the page itself or can be enquired about by activating the “?” – or “i”-button.
c) In principle, audio tracks must be inputted in full at the best level of quality available at the time, however not in an uncompressed data file format, such as .aiff or .wav. but in an .mp3 or .mp4 (aac) format with the highest available data rate.
d) No tracks may be used in a project, which do not in any way (e.g. speed, pitch) conform to tracks already present. For such tracks, a new project must be set up specifying the corresponding project parameters.
e) No pieces of work from other users may be entered a second time (e.g. downloading a piece of work as developer download and uploading the same piece of work again).
f) The entries of pieces of work which can be regarded as simple modifications of the pieces of work of another user are not desirable and should be respected by the user accordingly at the request of cocompose, if and/or as long as this piece of work is characterised by a corresponding symbol as “alteration not desirable” or “alteration not desirable without agreement” and the other user (or author) does not react to an alteration query through the commentary function allocated to the piece of work to the effect that the alteration is desirable by the enquiring user.
A simple modification is e.g. the alteration of the temporal order of the contents, the alteration of recording level, etc. on direct use of the piece of work of another user.
Before the user undertakes a simple modification to the piece of work of another user and enters it again in the modified form, the other user should thus first of all be given the opportunity to undertake and enter this simple modification himself whilst the user puts in an appropriate comment with his suggestion or request for alteration to the piece of work in question to which the other user (author) can react.
When a piece of work is labelled with an appropriate symbol “alteration not desirable without agreement”, if the other user (author) does not react to the request of the user within 14 days this is regarded as a signal that the simple modification of the piece of work is desirable by the user, is acceptable and is indeed welcome.
When a piece of work is labelled with the appropriate symbol „“alteration not desirable”, if the other user (author) does not react to the request from the user, this is to be judged as a signal that a simple modification of the piece of work by the user is not desirable and this should be respected by the user as long as the piece of work is labelled with the corresponding symbol.
The preceding conditions equally apply to the pieces of work entered by the user himself with regard to modification queries and suggestions by other users.
g) If an entered piece of work is based on the groundwork of the other user (e.g. melody, idea, lyrics, new recording, alteration, etc.), the source of the original piece of work must be specified without fail as a “basedon” entry at the naming of the project and cc-ID when uploading.
h) To obtain the largest possible combination option, the entry (audio) may not include several different types of instrument at the same time, at least not if these are of a completely different type (a drum together with bongos is allowed but not a drum together with a trumpet). In the case of different types of instrument, these must be entered into the system as individual tracks (Exception: A track taken on as an “idea”, which is however immediately to be set to the status “in work” and is to be left like that).
i) Irrespective of the above-mentioned condition h) entries of an instrument or a type of instrument which obviously and correspondingly belong together may not be artificially shared on several entries or tracks. Left and right audio channels or temporally dispersed activity from the same instrument or instrument type are to be entered into the system as a single track.
j) To orientate the other users, the instrument to be heard must be named when entering the track on the upload form.
k) A piece of work that should not be voted for as a composing or a part of such and therefore should be published as such in the entered version, in accordance with the user’s wishes - because the piece of work serves as an idea for example or is to be tested in interplay with other pieces of work, - must be set to the status “in work” by the user straight after uploading and labelled in the track commentary with the word “idea” or “test”. Such a work may be publicly observed and can be played or viewed within the project.
l) With the exception of the system administrator, a piece of work can only be deleted by the user himself and can only be deleted, so long as it is not already part of a voted for composing. Deleted pieces of work are removed from the project and are no longer accessible to the public in this case, however remain physically stored, e.g. for the purposes of clarifying an authorship after the event if necessary. Also modified or overwritten pieces of work or tracks remain to be stored in the archive for an unspecified time.
cocompose is not obliged to monitor adherence to the above-mentioned rules and if applicable introduce possible legal steps against a violator of them.
C-4.2 The user declares, with his entry, his agreement in respect of cocompose,
a) that – in so far as this is not opposed to interests of cocompose – other users may coordinate his piece of work with other pieces of work via an editor or similar devices for the purposes of participating in cocompose.com projects online and offline, i.e. in particular may take out sections, re-position them, alter and upload the sound, speed, start and end time, recording level etc. to create the most useful composing possible.
b) that, in so far as the opportunity is made available to the user on a system level to be able to label his piece of work with an appropriate symbol “alteration not desirable” or “alteration not desirable without consultation”, the user by labelling his piece of work with such a symbol pronounces no prohibition on his work in the sense that other users are forced to observe it in a legally binding way and the cocompose symbol is displayed in a freely definable, temporally limited way.
The labelling option of a piece of work with such a symbol is made available to the user by cocompose exclusively for the purpose of being able to signal to other users a request without obligation in the manner of a gesture or even a facial expression which should be respected by these as far as is possible at the request of cocompose for propriety’s sake.
c) that – in so far as this does not go against the interests of cocompose – his piece of work may be assigned to another cocompose.com project by another user via a referencing. A referenced piece of work appears in the other project as if it were put in there by the user himself. Projects which contain referenced pieces of work are flagged up as such in the projects of the users.
d) that cocompose is also entitled to manage the agreement made with cocompose in sections a) and c) above and the permission given therein with no further consultation with the user. The user therefore allows cocompose the right to grant or refuse other users corresponding options and permissions.
C-4.3 After the user, when uploading his piece of work, has given his agreement again to cocompose through confirmation of a corresponding notice, that other users may alter, optimise, sample or reproduce his work for the purposes of participating in cocompose projects, he can no longer withdraw this agreement for this piece of work.
C-4.4 The user is to make backup copies of all his entries in case of loss or damage. cocompose accepts no liability for the loss or damage of entries.
C-4.5 The user declares himself to be informed about the fact that entries to projects made by him are publicly accessible and are listened to by other users, looked at, rated and freely combined with pieces of work by other users, as well as being open to comments from other users via the commentary function.
C-4.6 The user declares himself in agreement that, regardless of his location for the establishing of the entry time of his entries – wherever in the world then – the date and time of cocompose.com (UTC +2) (subsequently called cocompose-time or cc-time) is to be applied exclusively to the time of the entry created. All times displayed in the offer and other correspondence relate to this cocompose-time.
C-4.7 The user declares his agreement herewith, that in the case of identical or similar entries with copyright relevance from several users, cocompose is to regard as the author entitled to claim that user who executed the entry the first in cocompose time. In the case of arguments, a settlement falls outside the field of activity and responsibility of cocompose and are to be settled by the parties concerned if necessary in a civil court.
C-4.8 cocompose expressly declares herewith that cocompose does not in principle check the entries by the user and does not agree with them, in particular not to the effect that the executed entry is not in breach of one or several rules defined in figures C-4.1 or 7.3 (GTC).
C-5 Rights and obligations of cocompose
C-5.1 cocompose reserves the right to limit, without prior notice both the data size and the accepted file types for entries and also restrict the number or data volume of the total possible entries in a freely determinable period of time.
C-5.2 cocompose reserves the right to withhold profits achieved in the case of unsettled copyright claims with no interest until that time the author entitled to remuneration is finally legally established. Moreover, cocompose reserves the right to remove in such a case, from the offer, the entries in question created by the user, as well as the composings resulting from this if necessary up to the legal ruling.
C-6 Rights of use and exploitation
a) If you as a user make entries, send in content or other material, and the content of the entry does not offend against the law in force and/or any rights of third parties, you grant cocompose and its authorised business partners a temporarily and spacially unlimited and exclusive right of use, which includes the publication, the commercial exploitation and other use of your entries, even mentioning your name, for any purposes online as well as offline, as well as the right to re-produce, revise, sub-license, translate and present the contents. cocompose may transfer this right of use to a third party.
b) You undertake to guarantee that, at the time of entry, you hold or control in another way all copyright and rights of use to content sent in by you; that the content is accurate; that the content provided by you does not injure regulations of the General Terms and Conditions of Use (GTC) and/or this Special Terms and Conditions of Use and does not inflict any damage on any other person or facility; that you release cocompose and its business partners from all claims, which result from the content sent in by you. By granting the right of use and exploitation to cocompose, cocompose does not become the author. You remain the originator of your entry or your piece of work.
c) Ifyou as a user offend the compulsory priciples according to figure 7.3. of the GTC and make entries, send in content or other material, and the content of the entry offends against the law in force and/or injures the rights of third parties, you make entries you are not authorized to by cocompose, wich are unwanted by cocompose and wich were expressly not demanded by cocompose. As your entry is affiliated, published and exploited by the system in a automated way and cocompose has no knowledge about this violating act, by submitting your entry you grant cocompose and its authorised business partners a provisionally and spatially unlimited right of use on your sole responsibility and liability, which includes the publication, the commercial exploitation and other use of your entries, even mentioning your name, for any purposes online as well as offline, as well as the right to reproduce, revise, sub-license, translate and present the contents.
This provisional right of use and exploitation applies until the time at which cocompose learns that the entry in question offends against the law in force and/or injures the rights of third parties, plus an appropriate period for its removal from the offer of cocompose and its business partners. So long as cocompose has no knowledge of a statutory violation or the injury of third parties, this right of use may be transferred by cocompose to a third party.
In case of the need for a provisional or complete removal of the entry in question from the offer of cocompose and its business partners because of its content beeing illegal and/or injurious to third parties, cocompose and its business partners are entitled to compensation for all the damages and costs resulting from the removal including the compensation of claims of third parties, as well as costs arising for legal defence.
If, retrospectively it is revealed conclusively that the content in question does not offend against the law in force and/or any rights of third parties, or if in the case of an infringement of third parties the adversary reaches agreement, that authorises the user to grant to others the rights of use, the afore mentioned provisional right of use changes into a spatially and temporally unlimited right of use in favour of cocompose at the time of the conclusively and as the case may be legal clarification and/or of the agreement of the adversaries, in accordance with figure C-6 a) and b). This is also valid if the provisional right of use has been expired in the meantime.
d) If you as a user make entries, send in content or other material, you declare herewith that you enter these into the system on a voluntary basis and free of charge. Should any copyright result to you from the entries made, you as a user grant cocompose and its business partners a right of use free of charge in accordance with the definitions in figure C-6 a) or C-6 c) of this Special Terms and Conditions and respectively figure 7.9. a) or 7.9. c) of the GTC. This applies in particular for the compilation or mixing of audio/video or other tracks, the naming of a created composing and for other text entries (e.g. in project or track commentaries) on the websites of cocompose.com.
The above-mentioned “free of charge” basis or gratuitousness does not apply for entries, which you undertake as a “Creative User” if something else is agreed in the subsequent definition of figure C-7 for the kind of entry made by you (e.g. profit-sharing for “Creative User”). The remaining regulations however remain thereby unaffected.
C-7 Remuneration, royalties
C-7.1 General remarks and definitions:
In so far as and only when cocompose achieves profits, which originate from chargeable purchase by end-users or from chargeable licence acquisition by a third party of composings composed from the pieces of work of users or the pieces of work themselves, a profit-sharing is foreseen for the users participating with their pieces of work on the respective composing, or participating in the work itself according to the royalties calculating formula for „Creative User“ ( ( http://info.cocompose.com/en/Info/Royalties-key/Royalties-Creative-User ) and the following definition:
a) As profit the net exploitation proceeds are defined, arising either from the chargeable purchase per composing according to each currently valid pricing model or from the chargeable license acquisition of composings or pieces of work by a third party on a basis for negotiation. In so far as nothing else is agreed under figure C-6.5 in both cases minus the dividends of cocompose to the amount of 19% as compensation for facilities provided and minus any exceptional costs and outlay directly connected with the exploitation of this composing or a piece of work (e.g. fees for GEMA – society for artists’ performance rights, contributions to ‘Künstlersozialkasse’ (German social insurance for artists), costs of obtaining licences).
b) An audio composing consists here of at least one audio track, a multimedia composing of at least one audio track and/or video track and/or captions track (compare karaoke).
Pieces of work such as cover images or lyrics are not an active part of a composing, even if they can be displayed together with composings, voted for if applicable or offered as a download, since they are not playable as a track. A lyric can however be part of a composing indirectly (see figure C-6.2. c)).
c) A chargeable purchase is made if end users or users in general purchase composings for a fee as playable music files or multimedia files, just as they originated from the users’ pieces of work at cocompose.com.
d) A chargeable purchase is not made if end users download composings without payment of a fee or for free, and cocompose therefore makes or has made no proceeds for such a composing.
e) A chargeable licence acquisition through third parties (subsequently simply called “sub-licensing to a third party” ) is made if a third party purchases rights of use and/or exploitation to composings or individual pieces of work for the purposes of commercial use and/or exploitation outside the field of activity of cocompose (e.g. exploitation through record companies and/or music portals, interpretation through other artists and/or bands, chargeable allocation of broadcasting and/or publication rights etc.).
f) The user is not granted any right to control of the pricing in respect of the purchase of composings in which he is participating with the inputting of his entry into the system. The same goes in regard to the pricing in the case of sub-licensing to a third party, affecting the composings in which the user is participating or the individual pieces of work of which he is the author.
C-7.2 Relevant entries for profit sharing (royalties):
a) An entry is only considered for a possible profit sharing in accordance with figure C-6.1, if it has been properly and successfully added to a project as an audio-/video-/captions track, as a lyrics text or as a cover image and the entry has been allocated its own cc-ID and it thereby registered by the system as an entry possibly eligible for profit sharing.
b) All entries, which the user has put into the system in another way (e.g. if the user enters a lyrics text or parts of it in a project or track commentary instead of in the entry window provided for lyrics) are excluded from profit sharing and are in principle not sorted into profit sharing by the system. The user provides such entries free of charge in accordance with figure 7.9 c) of the General Terms and Conditions.
c) An entered cover image is excluded from profit sharing in the chargeable purchase of composings by end users, even if it can be displayed in conjunction with composings, voted for or offered for downloading. cocompose reserves the right to let cover images also share in the profits in the future if appropriate, without however binding itself to this or accepting a specific sharing and also not retrospectively.
In the case of a sub-licensing to a third party, a cover image can be shared at profit if it will be or is an active component of the sub-licensing in the context of this sub-licensing in accordance with the following figure d) (e.g. printed CD cover is marketed by a record company).
d) Lyrics are not profit-shared in the proceeds from the chargeable purchase of composings in a direct way, but can be shared at profit indirectly via “based-on”-entries. This is the case for example if a lyrics text is sung by a user and the melody is then part of a composing as an audio track and/or as a captions track.
In the case of a sub-licensing to a third party in accordance with figure C-6.1 e), a lyrics text can however also be directly profit-shared if it will be or is an active component of a sub-licensing (e.g. printed text on a CD inlay that is marketed by a record company.
e) The user declares to have informed himself, under http://info.cocompose.com/en/Info/Pricing-model/ and http://info.cocompose.com/en/Info/Royalties-key/Royalties-Creative-User about the exact conditions of this and to also inform himself in the future about which type of entries can be obtained free of charge and for a fee as audio- or multimedia composing under what conditions, and according to what royalties calculating formula the profits in this regard are allocated through purchases in return for payment or sub-licensings to a third party on the entered pieces of work depending on their type and history.
C-7.4 Establishment of the sharing
a) The basis for the system-related establishment of a profit-sharing entitlement and the amount from a chargeable purchase by end users is that the entered piece of work itself or a piece work based on it entered by another user later (requirement “based on”-entry in accordance with following figure c)) has become part of a voting and therefore part of an audio- or multimedia composing open to acquisition.
b) The basis for the establishment of a profit-sharing entitlement from a sub-licensing to a third party or a nonportal- dependant exploitation by cocompose itself is not the mere participation in a project by the user by means of an inputted piece of work but – depending on the kind of interests manifested - the reality of which individual pieces of work from a project, in what combination, for further use and/or exploitation, are sublicensed or used and/or exploited by cocompose itself independent of portal.
c) If the entry of a user is based on one or several previously entered piece(s) of work of one or several other users and captured by the system, then the entry is to be provided, when putting into the system or when uploading, with one or several “based on” entries stating the name of the respective project- and cc-ID. If the entry of a user is determined to be entitled to profit-sharing because of a chargeable purchase or sublicensing to a third party, so also are all other users entitled to profit-sharing whose works have been specified as a “based-on” entry, though not in the same amount.
If such a reference (“based on”-entry) is missing or is not specified correctly, cocompose cannot establish the profit-sharing correctly and cannot be made responsible or liable for damages and/or disadvantages resulting from that.
The percentage and the amount of the respective profit-sharing results from each valid royalties calculating formula, which can be looked at under the link: http://info.cocompose.com/en/Info/Royalties-key/Royalties-Creative-User
d) The user is obliged to regularly check the offer and in particular projects that he is participating in as to whether the piece of work of another user is based on one of his pieces of work and whether the other user has correctly specified this (“based on”-entry). The user is to inform cocompose immediately if he receives knowledge of an unfair, devious or incorrect sharing, in particular if he notices that the piece of work of another is based on one of his pieces of work but the other has not specified this or not correctly. If the user does not carry this out or if an appropriate reference is missing (“based on”-entry), or if this is not specified correctly, cocompose cannot be made responsible or liable for damages and/or disadvantages resulting from that.
e) When inputting an entry, the user agrees not to specify any “based on”-entries which make reference to a piece of work by him and/or not to artificially fragment his entries in several parts to gain some sort of advantage with a view to higher profit-sharing.
If there is a strong suspicion of procuration of an avoidably unfair advantage of the above-mentioned type, cocompose reserves the right after checking to amend in compensatory fashion the hereby limited profitsharing and at their sole discretion, to demand back unfairly paid out royalties and/or exclude, if necessary, the user from the offer. There is however an obligation for a compensatory amendment for cocompose only in so far as a misuse has been legally established.
C- 7.5 Methods of payment and duration of sharing
a) The paying out of the remuneration/royalties due to profits gained and in which the user is entitled to share is carried out according to the planned settlement dates and conditions which follow through credit on the Paypal account specified by the user entitled to profit-sharing.
b) The user is obliged to immediately communicate to cocompose changes concerning his Paypal account, as well as his address details and email address. If the user does not comply with this obligation and presents to cocompose no valid Paypal account details at the relevant planned settlement date, then he is informed via an email from cocompose about this and given an appropriate time delay for communicating it.
If even after the expiry of this period no current Paypal account is made available to cocompose, the royalties achieved for this billing period expire. This also applies if the communication cannot be passed on to the user through his own fault.
The same applies throughout the membership of cocompose.com.
c) In so far as the user is entitled to royalties, these are credited to the user account at cocompose.com in accordance with the following figure d) until the expiry of the respective planned settlement date, so long as the proceeds in question (earnings through chargeable downloads, license earnings through sub-licensing to a third party, etc.) have gone into a cocompose account. The credit implies no recognition whatsoever that the redemption was on the basis of legal business transactions and/or the user was actually entitled to profitsharing in this regard.
d) The user can use the assets credited to his account from royalties for purchases on the cocompose.com portal, where amounts owing are offset. Remaining assets are transferred to the user’s specified Paypal account, over 10 euros at the end of the month, assets between 1 euro and 10 euros at the end of the quarter respectively, once the transaction fees levied by Paypal are deducted from the amount payable. Assets under 1 euro are not paid out and remain as assets until the next payable billing period when the assets for the payout period amount to at least 1 euro.
Assets on user accounts of cocompose.com are not given interest.
e) If business resulting from exploitation must be re-processed before credited assets have been paid out, the credited assets are cancelled. If it must be re-processed after the user has already been paid out, cocompose has the right to re-debit the user’s Paypal account within a period of three months, or demand the corresponding amount back, or credit the corresponding amount to the cocompose account. Cocompose is entitled even after the expiry of this period to demand the corresponding amount back, if cocompose demonstrates that the user had no claim to remuneration and/or was not entitled to profit-sharing. Cocompose reserves the right to calculate and demand back individual amounts to be refunded.
f) The paying out of royalties to users entitled to profit-sharing is carried out without checking whether they were valid transactions in the case of free or chargeable downloads executed by the user and implies no recognition whatsoever as to the validity of these transactions. If it transpires that free or chargeable downloads were executed through fraud, manipulation or on the basis of offences against the regulations effective in the Special Terms and Conditions of Use, cocompose has the right to re-debit the user’s Paypal account within a period of three months, or demand the corresponding amount back, or credit the corresponding amount to the cocompose account. Cocompose is entitled even after the expiry of this period to demand the corresponding amount back, if cocompose demonstrates that the user had no claim to remuneration and/or was not entitled to profit-sharing. Cocompose reserves the right to calculate and demand back individual amounts to be refunded.
g) The credit and paying out of royalties is in principle carried out net i.e. without value added tax. This applies in particular if the user does not reside in Germany or does not explicitly provide an entitlement to pre-tax allowance and his value added tax identification number which has validity for the royalties obtained via the offer from cocompose.
h) cocompose expressly points out herewith that the royalties obtained via the offer from cocompose – depending on legal rules of the user’s country of origin – are to be shown by the user himself to the financial authorities and are subject to tax. A statement to the respective financial authorities and a correct taxation of the royalties paid out does not fall in the area of responsibility of cocompose and is to be carried out by the user himself on his sole responsibility.
C-7.6 Peculiarities when exploiting outside the internet platform of cocompose
a) Should cocompose receive exploitation offers from third parties (e.g. enquiries about record contracts or similar), or should cocompose itself commission the production of classical sound carriers with popular composings and pieces of works and marketing them, cocompose will check, in agreement with the interested parties and if necessary the user and in consideration of the circumstances, whether the user’s piece of work must be re-interpreted by professional musicians, or the user himself can be entrusted with revising his piece(s) of work, in so far as the degree of familiarity or knowledge of the user are sufficient for such a commission. The interests of the user are considered here in so far as it is possible.
b) In the case of sub-licensing to a third party outside the field of activity of cocompose, the user and cocompose are both entitled to the same sharing of profit obtained through the sub-licensing, as if his piece of work were rated via the cocompose.com portal, in so far as cocompose itself is not the ordering party of the recording and marketing via classical sound carriers (music CD, etc.).
c) Cocompose reserves the right to commission the recording and marketing of classical sound carriers with successful or popular composings and pieces of works itself. In this case, cocompose is entitled to an additional profit-sharing to the amount of 20% of the profit gained through such an additional exploitation as compensation for additional expenditures and the increased risk resulting from this; the profit-sharing of the users taking part in a composing marketed in this way or the claim for remuneration for pieces of work marketed in this way is reduced accordingly. This exceptional profit-sharing rule does not however apply to the possible further profits obtained through the usual chargeable amount from downloads, via the internet portal of cocompose, of the composing or piece of work in question.
C-8 Liability
C-8.1 cocompose does not undertake any guarantee for fair profit-sharing in the exploitation of the entries made by the user. Cocompose reserves the right especially in the case of misuses, to check and alter the sharing system, or completely discontinue it through cancelling the amount for payment and/or the possibility of sub-licensing to a third party.
cocompose strives however towards a balance of interests as legal as possible in the context of the agreement and a sharing of the user, as legal as possible, in content obtained against payment and/or license earnings from contents in which the user is participating with his piece of work.
C-8.2 cocompose cannot subsequently be made liable for unfair sharings where applicable and/or unfairly paid out profit-sharings or similar.
C-8.3 cocompose does not undertake any guarantee for the successful or sufficient exploitation of the entries or pieces of work inputted into the system by the users. Cocompose does not expressly ensure that the entries or pieces of work inputted into the system and/or the composings resulting from that obtain or will obtain at any time proceeds or profit of a certain amount or even any kind of proceeds or profit.
C-9 Schlussbestimmungen
Should one or several regulations of these General Terms and Conditions of Use be or become ineffective, then the effectiveness of the General Terms and Conditions of Use are moreover not affected by this.