Terms of Use

These Terms of Use govern the use of the Website provided by the Ipernity Members Association (IMA), a non-profit organization, to publish, edit, share photos, documents, articles, and interact with other users (hereinafter: the Website). The IMA is located in 16, Rue Marie Gausson, 94350 Villiers-sur-Marne, France and is registered in Nogent-sur-Marne under number W942006250.

Disclaimer:

For informational purpose only. In case of conflict the French version of these Terms of Use shall govern. This is a translation provided for English-speaking users by courtesy of ipernity. The original French document can be found at: www.ipernity.com/about/tos?ol=fr

1. Acceptance of terms

1.1 Your use of the Website constitutes your agreement to these Terms of Use.

1.2 In addition the use of certain sections or elements of our Website may imply that you have to accept particular Terms of Use, a license of use or that you respect specific guidelines available on the pages dedicated to these elements of the Website in particular the Guide of good conduct available for consultation on www.ipernity.com/about/guidelines and the Group Guidelines available for consultation on www.ipernity.com/about/grouprules. Unless otherwise specified these additional and specific conditions will apply in addition to these Terms of Use. However, in case of contradiction the specific conditions will prevail.

1.3 You may also, when using the Website, use a partner service that ipernity presents to you through its Website. These partner services are generally identified by the partner's logo and accompanied by their own Terms of Use. By using these partner services, you accept their Terms of Use. In this case, only this contract will govern your relationship with this partner, to which ipernity is a stranger.

1.4 Ipernity shall have the right at its sole discretion to modify these Terms of Use in whole or in part at any time. In the event of a modification, ipernity will communicate the new Terms of Use to you via a newsflash in the team blog. Any subsequent use of this website following changes to these Terms of Use shall constitute your acceptance of all such changes.

1.5 We recommend you to make a local backup copy of these Terms of Use.

2. Use of the Website

2.1 You may use the Website only if you are an actual person, are aged 16 years or over and if neither French legislation nor that of your country of residence forbids you from using such websites.

2.2 To use the Website you must obtain internet access, either directly on your computer or through devices such as mobile phones, personal assistants. All associated service fees are at your charge.

2.3 In order to access the Website you may be asked to provide current, accurate identification, current address, your date of birth, a valid email address and other information that may be required as part of the registration process and/or continued use of the Website. This information will be recorded and used according to our Privacy Policy available at www.ipernity.com/about/you. You agree to:

  • (a) provide true, accurate, current and complete information;
  • (b) maintain and regularly update it.

The supply of all aforementioned information and their up to date maintenance in order to allow your identification are determining conditions for your right to use the Website.

2.4 You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account. Furthermore, you are entirely responsible for any and all activities that occur under your account. You agree to notify ipernity immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security.

2.5 Ipernity will not be liable for any loss or damage that you may incur as a result of someone else using your password or account, either with or without your knowledge.

3. Appropriate conduct

3.1 You understand that all information, data, text, software, music, sound, photography, graphic, video, message or other material (hereinafter, "Content") are the sole responsibility of the person from which such Content is published. Ipernity does not control the posted Content and does not have general obligation of monitoring Content posted via the Website by users. Therefore, ipernity reserves the right but shall have no obligation to pre-screen, see, refuse or remove any Content available through the Website. You understand that by using the Website you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable and that you use the Website at your own risk.

3.2 You agree that you are responsible for your own conduct and any Content that you create, transmit or display while using the Website and for any consequences that may result thereof.

3.3 You agree to use the Website only for purposes that are legal, proper and in accordance with the Terms of Use and with specific provisions as set out in paragraph 1.2 where they apply.

3.4 You shall refrain yourself when using the Website from carrying out acts of whatever nature (in particular consultation, uploading, sending out, circulating, publishing, broadcasting, placing online, issuing or of any other kind) if the act is contrary to French Law or the law of the country of your residence or offends against French public order or that of the country of your residence or may violate the rights of a third party. More particularly and while the following list is not exhaustive, you shall not:

  • (a) engage in acts constituting an apology for crimes against humanity, the denial of genocide, incitement to violence, racial hatred or pornography; engaging in acts of defamation, insult, threats, blackmail, harassment or acts that violate privacy or human dignity;
  • (b) in any way affecting minor users, to stimulate them to endanger themselves in any way;
  • (c) in particular, to transmit, disseminate, publish, publish or make accessible any Content which could constitute, without this list being restrictive, incitement to the realization of crimes and offenses; propagation of false news or financial information covered by the secrecy, as well as any Content intended to represent or propose for sale objects and/or works, software, contents prohibited by law or infringing rights of third parties; violation of the authority of justice; invasion of privacy, the protection of personal data or the secrecy of correspondence; disclosure of information covered by a secrecy relating to, inter alia, plenary adoption, ongoing litigation, suicide, or the health of a third party, or to an individual financial or financial situation covered by secrecy or the right to privacy; or of an act jeopardizing the minors, in particular by the manufacture, transmission, dissemination or accessibility of messages of a violent or pornographic nature, such as to infringe human dignity or to permit the manufacture of an explosive;
  • (d) attempting to mislead other users by impersonating or disrupting the image or reputation of others and/or posing as a third party employee, authorized service or affiliate of ipernity;
  • (e) tampering with data, messages or documents, message headers or identification data or connecting to the Website or otherwise manipulating an identifier to conceal the origin of the transmission of a Content via the Website;
  • (f) infringing any intellectual property rights (including, but not limited to, music, video, animations, games, software, databases, images, sounds, and texts) or any other property rights, (hereinafter "Rights") belonging to others;
  • (g) send or cause to be sent e-mails or instant messages to persons who have not solicited them or have not complied with their legal rights, such as advertisements, promotional material, chain letters or any other form direct unsolicited search; post promotional messages on the Website;
  • (h) post, e-mail or otherwise transmit any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
  • (i) disrupt, slow down, block or alter the normal flow of data exchanged within the Website, accelerate the rate of scrolling of the Website Content in such a way that the operation of the Website is modified or altered or any other action having an effect disturbance equivalent to the functionality of the Website;
  • (j) fraudulently access, hold, interfere or disrupt ipernity's information systems, including the Website, servers, networks connected to the Website, or refuse to comply with the requirements, procedures, general rules or provisions and regulations applicable to the networks connected to the Website;
  • (k) “stalk”, “flame” or harass other users of the Website;
  • (l) collect or record personal and/or nominative information concerning users of the Website.

3.5 You may contact ipernity to denounce any activity or Content that may constitute a violation of these Terms of Use via the contact form available at www.ipernity.com/help/support.

3.6 Users outside France agree to comply with all applicable laws and regulations relating to the lawfulness of online Content and conduct, including those relating to the transmission of data to or from France, or to or from your country of residence.

4. Privacy policy and supervising children

Information about our data protection practices can be found at: www.ipernity.com/about/you

4.1 Ipernity is aware of the need to protect the privacy and security users of the Website, especially minors, as much as possible. When you upload Content, you are responsible for assigning the appropriate visibility option of private, family, friends or public. The reliability of the system cannot be 100% guaranteed. Parents who wish to allow their children access to the Website should assist them in setting up any relevant accounts and supervise their access to the Website. By allowing your child access to the Website, they will be able to access all of the features including, internal email, message boards, instant messages and chat (among others). Please remember that the Website is designed to appeal to a broad audience. Accordingly, as the legal guardian, it is your responsibility to determine whether any of the features and/or Content is appropriate for your child.

4.2 By using the Website, you acknowledge, consent and agree that ipernity may access, preserve and disclose your account information and any Content associated with that account if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to:

  • (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request;
  • (b) enforce the Terms of Use, including investigation of potential violations hereof;
  • (c) detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues (including without limitation the filtering of spam);
  • (d) protect against imminent harm to the rights, property or safety of ipernity, its users or the public as required or permitted by law.

4.3 You understand and agree that the technical processing and transmission of the Website, including your Content may involve:

  • (a) transmissions over various networks;
  • (b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices.

5. Proprietary rights

  • Ipernity’s rights

5.1 You acknowledge, consent and agree that the ipernity Website and any necessary software used in connection with the Website ("Software") contain proprietary and confidential information that is protected by applicable intellectual property and other laws and treaties.

5.2 Subject to the Terms of Use, ipernity grants you a personal, non-transferable and non-exclusive right and license to use the object code of its Software; provided that you do not (and do not allow any third party to):

  • (a) copy, modify, create a derivative work of, reverse engineer, reverse assemble or otherwise attempt to discover any source code;
  • (b) sell, assign, sub-license, grant a security interest in or otherwise transfer any right in the Software, unless such activity is expressly permitted or required by law.

5.3 You consent and agree not to modify the Software in any manner or form or to use modified versions of the Software, including (without limitation) for the purpose of obtaining unauthorized access to the ipernity systems.

5.4 You consent and agree not to access the Website by any means other than through the interface or software that is provided by ipernity for use to access the Website or third-parties applications explicitly authorized by ipernity.

5.5 You further consent and agree not to remove, obscure or alter ipernity's or any third-party's copyright notices, trademarks or other proprietary rights notices affixed to or contained within or accessed with or through the Software.

5.6 You acknowledge and agree that third-parties, including ipernity users, own all rights, titles and interests in and to Content hosted by the Website or otherwise presented to you through ipernity. You consent that this Content is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties, which you are held to comply with.

  • Your rights

5.7 Ipernity does not claim ownership of Content you submit, post or display or make available on or through the Website. You or a third-party licensor, as appropriate, retain all patent, trademark, and copyright to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Website and you are responsible for protecting those rights, as appropriate.

5.8 The Content declared private and submitted to the Website might be seen fortuitously from the public, in case of user misuse of the features, pirating, hacking or computer related errors. It is therefore strongly recommended to not submit any confidential, private or sensitive data and information.

5.9 By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Website, you grant ipernity a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, distribute and publish such Content through the Website, including through RSS or any other Content feeds offered by the Website.

5.10 In addition, by submitting, posting or presenting Content intended to be available for the public, you grant ipernity a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to reproduce, edit, distribute and publish such Content for the purpose of presenting and promoting the Association.

5.11 Ipernity reserves for itself the right to deny, at its sole discretion, to post, display or transmit any Content.

5.12 Ipernity will discontinue this licensed use within a commercially reasonable period after such Content is removed from the Website.

6. Copyright, trademark and intellectual property policies

6.1 It is ipernity’s policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the French law or other applicable intellectual property laws. Any breach of a rule or complaint from any eligible party will irrevocably result in removing or disabling access to the material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity.

6.2 Be reminded that both the illicit exchange of protected works and recordings and their pirating seriously damage the artistic work. You also acknowledge that the non-respect of laws in force, notably those protecting the intellectual and artistic property could lead to prosecutions and sentences.

6.3 All or parts of the Content hosted by the Website can, by assent of their owners, be published on other websites that ipernity has no knowledge of (“External Sites”) through links provided by the Website. When you use such links and insert them on External Sites, you engage yourself to refer the published Content to the page of the Website hosting the Content, via a clickable link. This arrangement goes without saying within the general pattern of protecting intellectual property, copyright and works.

6.4 No stipulation of these Terms of Use grants you the right to use ipernity's trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features concerning ipernity or the Website.

7. General practices regarding use, storage and website

7.1 You agree that ipernity has no responsibility or liability for the deletion, corruption or failure to store any messages or communications or other Content maintained or transmitted by the Website. It is recommended to keep a backup of all Content submitted and/or hosted by the Website.

7.2 You acknowledge that ipernity has the right, at its sole discretion, to limit the speed and/or number of transmissions you may send or receive through the Website. Ipernity reserves the right to permanently delete any Content of your account after 6 months from the date of upload if the usage limits are exceeded, beginning with the oldest Content as measured by the upload date. No prior warning is given. It is the member's own responsibility to observe the timing.

7.3 You acknowledge ipernity’s discretionary right to compress any Content you might upload on the Website, including original formats.

7.4 When you cease using the Website, ipernity will close your account which will lead to the loss of any Content hosted on this account (see also 10.3.a).

8. Resale prohibited

8.1 You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade, resell or exploit for commercial purposes, any part of the Website, including any use or access to the Website.

9. Modifications of the Website

9.1 Ipernity reserves for itself the right to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, at any time and with or without notification, the Website (or any part thereof). You agree that ipernity shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Website.

9.2 Ipernity may at any time offer you additional, optional services and/or resources as part of the Website, such as the allocation of additional monthly download capacity. Paid services may be subject to specific Terms of Use, including the payment of fees.

10. Termination

10.1 The present Terms of Use shall remain in force as long as the Website is used.

10.2 You may discontinue your use of the Website at any time, without having to notify ipernity.

10.3 You agree that ipernity may, at any time and at its own discretion, terminate your access to the Website or close temporarily or permanently your account, especially in the following cases:

  • (a) extended period of inactivity for your account - this is the case if you have not logged into your account for more than 36 months;
  • (b) breaches or violation of the present Terms of Use (or at ipernity’s own discretion if considering that your behavior is tending to be disrespectful in the short or long term);
  • (c) request by law enforcement (for instance, if the Website provided was or became illicit);
  • (d) discontinuity of the Website for users of your country of residence;
  • (e) commercial non-viability of the Website.

10.4 In the event of termination your account will be disabled and you may not be granted access to the Website, to your account or to any files or other Content contained in it.

10.5 When these Terms of Use come to an end, all of the legal rights, obligations and liabilities that you and ipernity have benefited from, been subject to (or which have accrued over time whilst the Terms of Use have been in force) or which are expressed to continue indefinitely, shall be unaffected by this cessation.

11. Links

11.1 Ipernity may provide or third parties may provide links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. Because ipernity has no control over such sites and resources, you acknowledge and agree that ipernity is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any Content, advertising, products or other materials on or available from such sites or resources.

11.2 You further acknowledge and agree that ipernity shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such Content, goods or services available on or through any such site or resource.

12. Indemnity

12.1 You agree to exempt and indemnify ipernity from any action or demand from third parties in connection with or resulting from your use of the Website, non-compliance with these Terms of Use or any other action related to the use of the Website. Therefore, you also agree to indemnify and hold ipernity harmless from and against any and all claims, losses, damages (real and substantial), actions, suits, judgments, legal fees and expenses of any kind and nature related thereto. In this event, ipernity will notify you in writing of any such requests, proceedings or actions.

13. Disclaimer of warranties

13.1 Nothing in these Terms of Use shall affect your statutory rights as a consumer. You expressly understand and agree that:

  • (a) your use of the Website is at your sole risk;
  • (b) the Website is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

13.2 To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, ipernity expressly disclaims all warranties and conditions of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties and conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

13.3 Ipernity makes no warranty that:

  • (a) the Website will meet your needs or wishes;
  • (b) the Website will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free;
  • (c) the information you receive when using the Website will meet your expectations;
  • (d) defects and malfunctions of the Software will be corrected or repaired.

13.4 Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of the Website is done at your own discretion and risk and that you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or other device or loss of data that results from the download of any such material.

13.5 No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from ipernity or through or from the Website shall create any warranty not expressly stated in the Terms of Use.

14. Limitation of liability

14.1 The stipulation of the present conditions only exonerates and limits ipernity’s liability in case of loss within the limits prescribed by the law.

14.2 Ipernity shall not be liable to you for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages resulting from:

  • (a) the use or the inability to use the Website;
  • (b) the cost of procurement of substitute goods and services resulting from any goods, data, information or services purchased or obtained or messages received or transactions entered into through or from the Website;
  • (c) unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data;
  • (d) statements or conduct of any third party on the Website;
  • (e) any other reason relating to the Website.

In accordance with paragraph 1 of this article, ipernity shall not be liable to you for:

  • (a) loss of image or reputation;
  • (b) loss of data;
  • (c) loss of Content;
  • (d) any loss of profits or other economic loss you may have caused;
  • (e) indirect loss that would be related to your use of or access to the Website.

These limitations of liability shall apply whether or not ipernity has been informed of the possibility of such losses occurring.

15. Translation

15.1 Ipernity may provide translations of original Terms of Use written in French. You expressly understand and agree that translations are for informational purpose only, and that original French Terms of Use exclusively govern your use of the Website.

15.2 In case of contradictions or inconsistencies between original French document and translations, original French Terms of Use will prevail.

16. No third party beneficiaries

16.1 You agree that, except otherwise expressly provided in this Terms of Use, there shall be no third party beneficiaries to the Terms of Use.

17. Notice

17.1 You agree that ipernity may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Terms of Use, by email, regular mail or postings on the Website.

18. General information

18.1 Licensing and subcontracting. Ipernity may subcontract, assign or sale or transfer any of its obligation and/or rights to whether in whole or in part according to the terms of the present agreement.

18.2 Entire agreement. The Terms of Use (including any regulations, guides of conduct, and modifications of which you will be kept informed over time) constitute the entire agreement between ipernity and you and govern your use of the Website, superseding any prior agreements you may have entered into with ipernity with respect to the use of the Website. You may be subject to additional Terms of Use when using or purchasing other ipernity services, including paid services, from its affiliates, as well as Content and software from third parties.

18.3 Choice of Law and Forum. The Terms of Use and the relationship between you and ipernity shall be governed by the French laws without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You and ipernity agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in Nogent-Sur-Marne, France.

18.4 Waiver and Severability of Terms. The failure of ipernity to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any provision of the Terms of Use is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavour to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Terms of Use remain in full force and effect.

18.5 Statute of Limitations. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use the Website or the Terms of Use must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.

18.6 The section headings in the Terms of Use are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.

Last updated on 13 May 2021:

  • Section 7.2: Period increased from 3 to 6 months; reference to the absence of a previous warning added.