Terms of use
POCKETBOOK INTERNATIONAL S.A.
TERMS OF USE (END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT) FOR
POCKETBOOK READING DEVICES AND POCKETBOOK READING APPS
These Terms of Use (End User License Agreement) are effective as of 14 July, 2021
§1 General Provisions
- The following Terms of Use shall apply between you and Pocketbook International SA (jointly with its associated businesses also “PocketBook” or “we”) to the use of the PocketBook Reading Devices or PocketBook Reading App.
- Please carefully read these Terms of Use (the “License Agreement”) prior to using a PocketBook Reading Device or a PocketBook Reading App. The same applies to the PocketBook Privacy Notices as well as other additional notes or terms applicable to the use of a PocketBook Reading Device or PocketBook Reading App, to which we continue to draw your attention within the scope of this License Agreement or in the context of using a PocketBook Reading Device or a PocketBook Reading App.
- Before using a PocketBook Reading Device or PocketBook Reading App, you must agree to be bound by this License Agreement. You may not use the PocketBook Reading Device or PocketBook Reading App without your consent. In such case, you are entitled to return the new PocketBook Reading Device that had not been used to your vendor and receive a refund of the purchase price subject to the terms and conditions of return of goods established by the law of your country.
- Provided that you are not unreasonably disadvantaged by any amendment, we may at any time modify this License Agreement and other applicable terms, conditions and conditions of use, in whole or in part, for the following reasons: for legal or regulatory reasons, for security reasons, to further development, enhance or add to existing features of our Services, to make technical adjustments and to ensure the future functionality of our Services. If we make any changes, we will notify you within a reasonable period of time, and inform you of the rights to which you are entitled. As a rule, we will combine amendments to this License Agreement or other applicable provisions with an update/upgrade of the operating system for the PocketBook Reading Device or PocketBook Reading App and obtain your consent via a corresponding button in the course of downloading the update/upgrade. Before installing and using any update/upgrade of the operating system for the PocketBook Reading Device or PocketBook Reading App, you must agree to be bound by the amended/updated License Agreement (if any). You may not install or use such update/upgrade of the operating system for the PocketBook Reading Device or PocketBook Reading App without your consent to the amended/updated License Agreement. If a change proves to be invalid, void or for any other reason unenforceable, the validity and enforceability of the remaining changes or conditions shall not be affected. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we reserve the right to make changes to the free Services at any time via the PocketBook Reading Device or within the PocketBook Reading App. In such a case, we will notify you immediately by e-mail or by a notification that appears on your PocketBook Reading Device or Reading App.
- The currently valid License Agreement can be found at https://legal.pocketbook-int.com/e-ink/EULA or on your PocketBook Reading Device or within the PocketBook Reading App under settings.
- By using the PocketBook Reading Device, you acknowledge the validity of the following additional condition:
- the Terms and Conditions of the Apache License, Version 2.0 (if applicable);
- he Terms and Conditions of the GNU 3 (GPLv3) or GNU 2 (GPLv2) License (if applicable).
The text of the Apache License, version 2.0, is available at:
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.
Text of the GPLv3 License is available at:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html.
Text of the GPLv2 license is available at:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html.
§ 2 Definitions
For the purpose of the License Agreement, the following definitions apply:
- "Digital Content" shall mean digitized content, such as books, newspapers, magazines, audios and related functionalities.
- “PocketBook Reading Devices” shall mean our portable electronic readers.
- "Reading App" means software (including any update/improvement to such software) that we provide and that enables users to purchase, download, browse and/or use Digital Content on or from a supported device.
- "Service" means the provision of Digital Content, Software, customer Service and other Services that we provide to Users of PocketBook Reading Devices and Reading Apps, including the wireless connection to the PocketBook Reading Device.
- "Software" means the Reading Application and all Software on the PocketBook Reading Device (including any updates/upgrades to that Software), and any related documentation that we make available to you.
- "Supported Devices" means a mobile, computer or other supported electronic device other than PocketBook Reading Devices on which you are authorized to operate a Reading Application and use other related Services and websites.
§ 3 Connectivity and Availability
- Use of the Internet and of Wireless Connectivity.If supported, your PocketBook Reading Device uses an Internet connection or a data plan of third-party provider to allow you to shop for, download and use Digital Content or other related functions or Services. In such case, your Internet connection or your data plan is subject to the fees, restrictions and terms imposed by the wireless provider. If your PocketBook Reading Device is not subject to a data plan or other third-party fees, we do not charge you for the use of wireless connectivity.
- Your Conduct.
You may use the wireless connectivity provided by us only in connection with the Services as permitted by this Agreement and the use of the PocketBook Reading Device or PocketBook Reading App, and for no other purpose. - Availability.
If your PocketBook Reading Device is located in an area where wireless connectivity is not available, you may not be able to use all or any of the Services or other features of your PocketBook Reading Device. We are not responsible for the unavailability of wireless connectivity for your PocketBook Reading Device or related Service failures. Actions beyond our control (such as changes in Services or mobile operator policies) may affect the terms or circumstances under which we provide wireless connectivity to you and may result in temporary or permanent modification or loss of wireless connectivity to your PocketBook Reading Device.
§ 4 Use of the Software.
- You may use the Software only on a PocketBook Reading Device or in the form of the Reading App on a supported device. Moreover, the conditions contained in § 10 of this license agreement apply to the Software. Additional terms that apply to certain third-party software are contained in the legal or similar sections of the settings menu of your PocketBook Reading Device or Reading App. Software that is subject to an open-source license is governed solely by the terms of that open-source license.
- To keep your Software up to date, we may provide you with manual updates at any time, whereat we will obtain your consent via a corresponding button in the course of downloading the update.
§ 5 Location-based Services.
Some PocketBook Reading Devices have the feature that, when enabled, allows PocketBook to access the location on your device and use related information of your device. PocketBook does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or security of any local services.
§ 6 Use of Third-party Services
The use of third-party services accessible via the PocketBook Reading Device or PocketBook Reading App is subject to the respective terms of use/general terms and conditions of the third-party provider. You are responsible for all information you disclose to third-party providers. Their use, including the use of your own personal information, is subject to the applicable privacy policies or other terms and conditions of the third-party providers.
§ 7 Termination
You automatically lose your rights under this Agreement if you breach any provision of this License Agreement. In the event of such termination, PocketBook may immediately terminate your access to the Service without any refund. If PocketBook does not insist on or enforce compliance with the terms of this License Agreement from time to time, this shall not be deemed a general waiver of PocketBook's rights.
§ 8 Contact Information.
For help with your PocketBook Reading Device, a reading application, the Services, Digital Contents, or resolving other issues, please contact Customer Service by e-mail: info@PocketBook-int.com. For any queries concerning this Agreement, please contact PocketBook by email: info@PocketBook-int.com.
§ 9 Privacy
When processing your personal data, we observe the legal requirements. For more information relating to that subject as well as to legally required information, please see the Data Privacy Notices that can be accessed on your PocketBook Reading Device or as part of your PocketBook Reading App.
§ 10 License and access
- Unless specifically provided otherwise with respect to individual services, PocketBook grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to access and make non-commercial use of the PocketBook Services, provided that you comply with this License Agreement and any other applicable terms and conditions of service and, if applicable, pay any applicable fees. This right of use does not include the resale or commercial use of PocketBook Services or their contents, the collection and use of product and service information, descriptions or prices, the derivative use of PocketBook Services or their contents or the use of data mining, robots or similar data-collection and extraction programs.
- PocketBook, its licensors, suppliers, publishers, right holders or other content providers reserve all rights not expressly granted to you in these Terms of Use or the Terms of Service. No PocketBook Service or any part thereof may be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, or otherwise used for commercial purposes without our express written consent.
- You may not frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose any trademark, logo, or other proprietary information (including images, text, page layout, or form) of PocketBook without our express written consent. You may not use any meta tags or any other "hidden text" utilizing PocketBook's name or trademarks without our express written consent.
- You may not misuse the PocketBook Services. You may use the PocketBook Services only as permitted by law. The rights granted by PocketBook to use the PocketBook Services terminate if you do not comply with these Terms of Use or any special terms of service.
- With regard to the use of third-party services made accessible via the PocketBook Reading Device or PocketBook Reading App, the respective terms of use/terms and conditions of the third-party provider apply. PocketBook is not responsible for these third-party services. PocketBook does not check these services nor does PocketBook adopt these or the respective contents as its own.
- Open-source software: When the Software is installed and used, components of open-source software are installed and used. The components affected by open source can be identified by the text of the corresponding license at the beginning of the file. The corresponding open-source license terms are available via the respective link in § 1 para. 6 of this License Agreement. The same license terms are available in the device under About Device – Legal Information – Open Source Licenses. Open-source software is subject to the applicable open-source terms of use. The PocketBook Terms of Use apply only to the extent that they do not conflict with the terms of the open-source licenses. If the terms of the open-source license terms so require, we will provide you (by download) with the source code of the relevant components in the form of a fully machine-readable archived copy of the relevant source code. If no such downloadable archived copy is available, PocketBook will, at your direct request within three (3) years, make a printout of a fully machine-readable copy of the applicable source code for a fee not exceeding the cost of sending the source code.
§ 11 Account
You may need a PocketBook account to use certain PocketBook Services (except PocketBook Cloud). You are responsible for ensuring the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer and mobile devices. You are responsible for any use and/or other activity that occurs under your access data as permitted by law.
§ 12 Copyright Complaints
PocketBook respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you suspect that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please contact us using the contact details as provided in the contact information in § 8.
§ 13 Liability
- We will always endeavor to ensure that the Services are available without interruption and that transmissions are error-free. Due to the nature of the Internet, however, this cannot be guaranteed. Access to our Services may also be interrupted or restricted from time to time to enable repairs, maintenance or the introduction of new features or services. We will attempt to limit the frequency and duration of any such temporary interruption or limitation.
- PocketBook is liable without limitation if the cause of damage is based on an intentional or grossly negligent breach of duty by PocketBook or a legal representative or vicarious agent of PocketBook.
- Furthermore, PocketBook is liable for the slightly negligent violation of essential obligations. Essential are obligations whose violation endangers the achievement of the purpose of the contract or whose fulfillment enables the proper execution of the contract in the first place and on whose fulfillment you can regularly rely. In this case, however, PocketBook is only liable for the foreseeable, typical contractual damage. PocketBook is not liable for the slightly negligent violation of obligations other than those mentioned in the preceding sentences.
- The above limitations of liability shall not apply in the event of injury to life, limb or health, for a defect after acceptance of a guarantee for the quality of the product and in the event of fraudulently concealed defects. Liability under the Product Liability Act remains unaffected.
- To the extent that the liability of PocketBook is excluded or limited, this also applies to the personal liability of its employees, representatives and vicarious agents.
§ 14 Applicable Law, Place of Jursidiction and Partial Invalidity, Settlement of Disputes
- The law of Switzerland shall apply, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and the conflict of laws.
- If any claims, causes of action, or disputes with us arise out of or in connection with this License Agreement or PocketBook, such claims shall be subject to the exclusive venue of the competent court in Lugano, Switzerland.
- If you are a consumer habitually resident in the EU, you are also protected by the mandatory provisions of the law of your country of residence. You may file claims under this License Agreement arising from consumer protection standards either in Switzerland or in the EU Member State in which you reside.
- Should individual provisions of this license agreement be invalid, they shall remain valid in all other respects. Instead of the invalid provision, the relevant statutory provisions shall apply.
- The European Commission provides a platform for online dispute resolution which can be found at the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/. We are not willing or obliged to participate in a dispute settlement procedure before a consumer redress body.
§ 15 Entire Agreement. Governing Language
- This License represents the entire agreement between you and PocketBook with respect to the PocketBook Software and replaces all and any previous or provisional arrangements of the Parties on the subject matter hereof.
- Any translation of this License Agreement shall only be made to comply with requirements of locally applicable law. In the event of any discrepancies between the English version and versions in any other languages, the English version of the License shall prevail to the maximum degree, unless expressly prohibited by local laws.
Addition 1 - IVONA EMBEDDED
YOU SHALL BE BOUND BY THE FOLLOWING PROVISIONS ONLY IF YOUR POCKETBOOK READING DEVICE CARRIES IVONA EMBEDDED TEXT-TO-SPEECH SOFTWARE (IN THIS ADDITION 1 – THE «SOFTWARE» AND THE «PRODUCT», RESPECTIVELY). IF SO, IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE:
1. You may use the Software only as a part of the products and solely for real-time text to speech to read aloud to user.
2. You may use the Software solely for personal use and not for commercial purposes.
3. You will not use the Software or Speech (that means an audio output generated by use of Software and/or the audio containing such output) in a manner that:
(a) may be considered sexually explicit, vulgar, profane, offensive or obscene, defamatory, slanderous, religiously or racially offensive or otherwise promoting hate towards individuals or groups, promoting terrorist or other criminal activities; or
(b) infringes anyone else’s intellectual property rights or rights of privacy.
4. You may not distribute Speech in any manner, including, but not limited to, in the form of audio files, as a part of applications, materials and multimedia works created by or for the end user or otherwise rent, resell, lease or lend Speech to any third party.
5. To the maximum extent permissible under the mandatory provisions of law, you will not reverse engineer, disassemble or decompile the Software or any portion thereof or otherwise attempt to derive or determine the source code or the logic therein. You shall not tamper with, modify or defeat nor attempt to tamper with, modify or defeat, any security measures built into the Software.
6. You shall assume full responsibility for making backup copies of any of your own software, data and databases that will interact with the Software.
7. You do not acquire any ownership rights or intellectual property rights to the Software other than the express license granted in this End User License Agreement.
8. You shall not remove any Software proprietary rights notices or restrictions.
9. Any software provided to you in order to update, upgrade, correct or otherwise modify the Software, is deemed to be the part of the Software and shall by governed by the Product License Agreement, unless other terms of use are provided with such items.
10. You are not entitled to rent or lease the Software, or sublicense it to anyone. Any attempt to rent or lease or sublicense, or to transfer any of its rights shall be void.
11. You agree to destroy the Software together with all copies, modifications and merged portions in any form upon termination of the license granted to you.
12. All your rights to the Software may be terminated if the Software becomes, or in the opinion of READSPEAKER may become, the subject of any third-party claim or action against PocketBook alleging that the Software directly infringes a United States or European Union copyright or patent.
Addition 2 - READSPEAKER EMBEDDED
YOU SHALL BE BOUND BY THE FOLLOWING PROVISIONS ONLY IF YOUR POCKETBOOK READING DEVICE CARRIES READSPEAKER EMBEDDED TEXT-TO-SPEECH SOFTWARE (IN THIS ADDITION 2 – THE «SOFTWARE» AND THE «PRODUCT», RESPECTIVELY). IF SO, IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE:
1. You may use the Software only as a part of the products and solely for real-time text to speech to read aloud to user.
2. You may use the Software solely for personal use and not for commercial purposes.
3. You will not use the Software or Speech (that means an audio output generated by use of Software and/or the audio containing such output) in a manner that:
(a) may be considered sexually explicit, vulgar, profane, offensive or obscene, defamatory, slanderous, religiously or racially offensive or otherwise promoting hate towards individuals or groups, promoting terrorist or other criminal activities; or
(b) infringes anyone else’s intellectual property rights or rights of privacy.
4. You may not distribute Speech in any manner, including, but not limited to, in the form of audio files, as a part of applications, materials and multimedia works created by or for the end user or otherwise rent, resell, lease or lend Speech to any third party.
5. To the maximum extent permissible under the mandatory provisions of law, you will not reverse engineer, disassemble or decompile the Software or any portion thereof or otherwise attempt to derive or determine the source code or the logic therein. You shall not tamper with, modify or defeat nor attempt to tamper with, modify or defeat, any security measures built into the Software.
6. You shall assume full responsibility for making backup copies of any of your own software, data and databases that will interact with the Software.
7. You do not acquire any ownership rights or intellectual property rights to the Software other than the express license granted in this End User License Agreement.
8. You shall not remove any Software proprietary rights notices or restrictions.
9. Any software provided to you in order to update, upgrade, correct or otherwise modify the Software, is deemed to be the part of the Software and shall by governed by the Product License Agreement, unless other terms of use are provided with such items.
10. You are not entitled to rent or lease the Software, or sublicense it to anyone. Any attempt to rent or lease or sublicense, or to transfer any of its rights shall be void.
11. You agree to destroy the Software together with all copies, modifications and merged portions in any form upon termination of the license granted to you.
12. All your rights to the Software may be terminated if the Software becomes, or in the opinion of READSPEAKER may become, the subject of any third-party claim or action against PocketBook alleging that the Software directly infringes a United States or European Union copyright or patent.