path: root/contrib/tos/en/0.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE document PUBLIC "+//IDN docutils.sourceforge.net//DTD Docutils Generic//EN//XML" "http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/docutils.dtd">
<!-- Generated by Docutils 0.16 -->
<document source="/home/grothoff/research/taler/exchange/contrib/tos/tos.rst">
    <section ids="terms-of-service" names="terms\ of\ service">
        <title>Terms Of Service</title>
        <paragraph>Last Updated: 09.06.2022</paragraph>
        <paragraph>Welcome! The ICE research center of the Bern University of Applied Sciences
            in Switzerland (“we,” “our,” or “us”) provides an experimental payment service
            through our Internet presence (collectively the “Services”). Before using our
            Services, please read the Terms of Service (the “Terms” or the “Agreement”)
            carefully.</paragraph>
        <section ids="this-is-research" names="this\ is\ research">
            <title>This is research</title>
            <paragraph>This is a research experiment. Any funds wired to our Bitcoin address are
                considered a donation to our research group. We may use them to enable
                payments following the GNU Taler protocol, or simply keep them at our
                discretion.  The service is experimental and may also be discontinued at
                any time, in which case all remaining funds will definitively be kept by
                the research group.</paragraph>
        </section>
        <section ids="overview" names="overview">
            <title>Overview</title>
            <paragraph>This section provides a brief summary of the highlights of this
                Agreement. Please note that when you accept this Agreement, you are accepting
                all of the terms and conditions and not just this section. We and possibly
                other third parties provide Internet services which interact with the Taler
                Wallet’s self-hosted personal payment application. When using the Taler Wallet
                to interact with our Services, you are agreeing to our Terms, so please read
                carefully.</paragraph>
            <section ids="highlights" names="highlights:">
                <title>Highlights:</title>
                <block_quote>
                    <bullet_list bullet="•">
                        <list_item>
                            <paragraph>You are responsible for keeping the data in your Taler Wallet at all times
                                under your control. Any losses arising from you not being in control of
                                your private information are your problem.</paragraph>
                        </list_item>
                        <list_item>
                            <paragraph>We may transfer funds we receive from our users to any legal
                                recipient to the best of our ability within the limitations of the law and
                                our implementation. However, the Services offered today are highly
                                experimental and the set of recipients of funds is severely restricted.
                                Again, we stress this is a research experiment and technically all funds
                                held by the exchange are owned by the research group of the university.</paragraph>
                        </list_item>
                        <list_item>
                            <paragraph>For our Services, we may charge transaction fees. The specific fee structure
                                is provided based on the Taler protocol and should be shown to you when you
                                withdraw electronic coins using a Taler Wallet. You agree and understand
                                that the Taler protocol allows for the fee structure to change.</paragraph>
                        </list_item>
                        <list_item>
                            <paragraph>You agree to not intentionally overwhelm our systems with requests and
                                follow responsible disclosure if you find security issues in our services.</paragraph>
                        </list_item>
                        <list_item>
                            <paragraph>We cannot be held accountable for our Services not being available due to
                                any circumstances. If we modify or terminate our services,
                                we may give you the opportunity to recover your funds. However,
                                given the experimental state of the Services today, this may not be
                                possible. You are strongly advised to limit your use of the Service
                                to small-scale experiments expecting total loss of all funds.</paragraph>
                        </list_item>
                    </bullet_list>
                </block_quote>
                <paragraph>These terms outline approved uses of our Services. The Services and these
                    Terms are still at an experimental stage. If you have any questions or
                    comments related to this Agreement, please send us a message to
                    <reference refuri="mailto:ice@bfh.ch">ice@bfh.ch</reference>. If you do not agree to this Agreement, you must not
                    use our Services.</paragraph>
            </section>
        </section>
        <section ids="how-you-accept-this-policy" names="how\ you\ accept\ this\ policy">
            <title>How you accept this policy</title>
            <paragraph>By sending funds to us (to top-up your Taler Wallet), you acknowledge that you
                have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms. We reserve the right to
                change these Terms at any time. If you disagree with the change, we may in the
                future offer you with an easy option to recover your unspent funds. However,
                in the current experimental period you acknowledge that this feature is not
                yet available, resulting in your funds being lost unless you accept the new
                Terms. If you continue to use our Services other than to recover your unspent
                funds, your continued use of our Services following any such change will
                signify your acceptance to be bound by the then current Terms. Please check
                the effective date above to determine if there have been any changes since you
                have last reviewed these Terms.</paragraph>
        </section>
        <section ids="services" names="services">
            <title>Services</title>
            <paragraph>We will try to transfer funds that we receive from users to any legal
                recipient to the best of our ability and within the limitations of the
                law. However, the Services offered today are highly experimental and the set
                of recipients of funds is severely restricted.  The Taler Wallet can be loaded
                by exchanging fiat or cryptocurrencies against electronic coins. We are
                providing this exchange service. Once your Taler Wallet is loaded with
                electronic coins they can be spent for purchases if the seller is accepting
                Taler as a means of payment. We are not guaranteeing that any seller is
                accepting Taler at all or a particular seller.  The seller or recipient of
                deposits of electronic coins must specify the target account, as per the
                design of the Taler protocol. They are responsible for following the protocol
                and specifying the correct bank account, and are solely liable for any losses
                that may arise from specifying the wrong account. We may allow the government
                to link wire transfers to the underlying contract hash. It is the
                responsibility of recipients to preserve the full contracts and to pay
                whatever taxes and charges may be applicable. Technical issues may lead to
                situations where we are unable to make transfers at all or lead to incorrect
                transfers that cannot be reversed. We may refuse to execute transfers if the
                transfers are prohibited by a competent legal authority and we are ordered to
                do so.</paragraph>
            <paragraph>When using our Services, you agree to not take any action that intentionally
                imposes an unreasonable load on our infrastructure. If you find security
                problems in our Services, you agree to first report them to
                <reference refuri="mailto:security@taler-systems.com">security@taler-systems.com</reference> and grant us the right to publish your report. We
                warrant that we will ourselves publicly disclose any issues reported within 3
                months, and that we will not prosecute anyone reporting security issues if
                they did not exploit the issue beyond a proof-of-concept, and followed the
                above responsible disclosure practice.</paragraph>
        </section>
        <section ids="fees" names="fees">
            <title>Fees</title>
            <paragraph>You agree to pay the fees for exchanges and withdrawals completed via the
                Taler Wallet (“Fees”) as defined by us, which we may change from time to
                time. With the exception of wire transfer fees, Taler transaction fees are set
                for any electronic coin at the time of withdrawal and fixed throughout the
                validity period of the respective electronic coin. Your wallet should obtain
                and display applicable fees when withdrawing funds. Fees for coins obtained as
                change may differ from the fees applicable to the original coin. Wire transfer
                fees that are independent from electronic coins may change annually.  You
                authorize us to charge or deduct applicable fees owed in connection with
                deposits, exchanges and withdrawals following the rules of the Taler protocol.
                We reserve the right to provide different types of rewards to users either in
                the form of discount for our Services or in any other form at our discretion
                and without prior notice to you.</paragraph>
        </section>
        <section ids="eligibility-and-financial-self-responsibility" names="eligibility\ and\ financial\ self-responsibility">
            <title>Eligibility and Financial self-responsibility</title>
            <paragraph>To be eligible to use our Services, you must be able to form legally binding
                contracts or have the permission of your legal guardian. By using our
                Services, you represent and warrant that you meet all eligibility requirements
                that we outline in these Terms.</paragraph>
            <paragraph>You will be responsible for maintaining the availability, integrity and
                confidentiality of the data stored in your wallet. When you setup a Taler
                Wallet, you are strongly advised to follow the precautionary measures offered
                by the software to minimize the chances to losse access to or control over
                your Wallet data. We will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from
                your failure to comply with this paragraph.</paragraph>
        </section>
        <section ids="copyrights-and-trademarks" names="copyrights\ and\ trademarks">
            <title>Copyrights and trademarks</title>
            <paragraph>The Taler Wallet is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License
                (GNU GPL). You have the right to access, use, and share the Taler Wallet, in
                modified or unmodified form. However, the GPL is a strong copyleft license,
                which means that any derivative works must be distributed under the same
                license terms as the original software. If you have any questions, you should
                review the GNU GPL’s full terms and conditions at
                <reference refuri="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html">https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html</reference>.  “Taler” itself is a trademark
                of Taler Systems SA. You are welcome to use the name in relation to processing
                payments using the Taler protocol, assuming your use is compatible with an
                official release from the GNU Project that is not older than two years.</paragraph>
        </section>
        <section ids="limitation-of-liability-disclaimer-of-warranties" names="limitation\ of\ liability\ &amp;\ disclaimer\ of\ warranties">
            <title>Limitation of liability &amp; disclaimer of warranties</title>
            <paragraph>You understand and agree that we have no control over, and no duty to take any
                action regarding: Failures, disruptions, errors, or delays in processing that
                you may experience while using our Services; The risk of failure of hardware,
                software, and Internet connections; The risk of malicious software being
                introduced or found in the software underlying the Taler Wallet; The risk that
                third parties may obtain unauthorized access to information stored within your
                Taler Wallet, including, but not limited to your Taler Wallet coins or backup
                encryption keys.  You release us from all liability related to any losses,
                damages, or claims arising from:</paragraph>
            <enumerated_list enumtype="loweralpha" prefix="(" suffix=")">
                <list_item>
                    <paragraph>user error such as forgotten passwords, incorrectly constructed
                        transactions;</paragraph>
                </list_item>
                <list_item>
                    <paragraph>server failure or data loss;</paragraph>
                </list_item>
                <list_item>
                    <paragraph>unauthorized access to the Taler Wallet application;</paragraph>
                </list_item>
                <list_item>
                    <paragraph>bugs or other errors in the Taler Wallet software; and</paragraph>
                </list_item>
                <list_item>
                    <paragraph>any unauthorized third party activities, including, but not limited to,
                        the use of viruses, phishing, brute forcing, or other means of attack
                        against the Taler Wallet. We make no representations concerning any
                        Third Party Content contained in or accessed through our Services.</paragraph>
                </list_item>
            </enumerated_list>
            <paragraph>Any other terms, conditions, warranties, or representations associated with
                such content, are solely between you and such organizations and/or
                individuals.</paragraph>
            <paragraph>To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will we or any
                of our officers, directors, representatives, agents, servants, counsel,
                employees, consultants, lawyers, and other personnel authorized to act,
                acting, or purporting to act on our behalf (collectively the “Taler Parties”)
                be liable to you under contract, tort, strict liability, negligence, or any
                other legal or equitable theory, for:</paragraph>
            <enumerated_list enumtype="loweralpha" prefix="(" suffix=")">
                <list_item>
                    <paragraph>any lost profits, data loss, cost of procurement of substitute goods or
                        services, or direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive, compensatory,
                        or consequential damages of any kind whatsoever resulting from:</paragraph>
                </list_item>
            </enumerated_list>
            <block_quote>
                <enumerated_list enumtype="lowerroman" prefix="(" suffix=")">
                    <list_item>
                        <paragraph>your use of, or conduct in connection with, our services;</paragraph>
                    </list_item>
                    <list_item>
                        <paragraph>any unauthorized use of your wallet and/or private key due to your
                            failure to maintain the confidentiality of your wallet;</paragraph>
                    </list_item>
                    <list_item>
                        <paragraph>any interruption or cessation of transmission to or from the services; or</paragraph>
                    </list_item>
                    <list_item>
                        <paragraph>any bugs, viruses, trojan horses, or the like that are found in the Taler
                            Wallet software or that may be transmitted to or through our services by
                            any third party (regardless of the source of origination), or</paragraph>
                    </list_item>
                </enumerated_list>
            </block_quote>
            <enumerated_list enumtype="loweralpha" prefix="(" start="2" suffix=")">
                <list_item>
                    <paragraph>any direct damages.</paragraph>
                </list_item>
            </enumerated_list>
            <paragraph>These limitations apply regardless of legal theory, whether based on tort,
                strict liability, breach of contract, breach of warranty, or any other legal
                theory, and whether or not we were advised of the possibility of such
                damages. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of
                liability for consequential or incidental damages, so the above limitation may
                not apply to you.</paragraph>
            <paragraph>Our services are provided “as is” and without warranty of any kind. To the
                maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all representations and
                warranties, express or implied, relating to the services and underlying
                software or any content on the services, whether provided or owned by us or by
                any third party, including without limitation, warranties of merchantability,
                fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, freedom from
                computer virus, and any implied warranties arising from course of dealing,
                course of performance, or usage in trade, all of which are expressly
                disclaimed. In addition, we do not represent or warrant that the content
                accessible via the services is accurate, complete, available, current, free of
                viruses or other harmful components, or that the results of using the services
                will meet your requirements. Some states do not allow the disclaimer of
                implied warranties, so the foregoing disclaimers may not apply to you. This
                paragraph gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other legal
                rights that vary from state to state.</paragraph>
        </section>
        <section ids="indemnity-and-time-limitation-on-claims-and-termination" names="indemnity\ and\ time\ limitation\ on\ claims\ and\ termination">
            <title>Indemnity and Time limitation on claims and Termination</title>
            <paragraph>To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and
                hold harmless the Taler Parties from and against any and all claims, damages,
                obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including, but
                not limited to, attorney’s fees) arising from: (a) your use of and access to
                the Services; (b) any feedback or submissions you provide to us concerning the
                Taler Wallet; (c) your violation of any term of this Agreement; or (d) your
                violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or the rights of any third party.</paragraph>
            <paragraph>You agree that any claim you may have arising out of or related to your
                relationship with us must be filed within one year after such claim arises,
                otherwise, your claim in permanently barred.</paragraph>
            <paragraph>In the event of termination concerning your use of our Services, your
                obligations under this Agreement will still continue.</paragraph>
        </section>
        <section ids="discontinuance-of-services-and-force-majeure" names="discontinuance\ of\ services\ and\ force\ majeure">
            <title>Discontinuance of services and Force majeure</title>
            <paragraph>We may, in our sole discretion and without cost to you, with or without prior
                notice, and at any time, modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently,
                any portion of our Services. We will use the Taler protocol’s provisions to
                notify Wallets if our Services are to be discontinued. It is your
                responsibility to ensure that the Taler Wallet is online at least once every
                three months to observe these notifications. We shall not be held responsible
                or liable for any loss of funds in the event that we discontinue or depreciate
                the Services and your Taler Wallet fails to transfer out the coins within a
                three months notification period.</paragraph>
            <paragraph>We shall not be held liable for any delays, failure in performance, or
                interruptions of service which result directly or indirectly from any cause or
                condition beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to: any
                delay or failure due to any act of God, act of civil or military authorities,
                act of terrorism, civil disturbance, war, strike or other labor dispute, fire,
                interruption in telecommunications or Internet services or network provider
                services, failure of equipment and/or software, other catastrophe, or any
                other occurrence which is beyond our reasonable control and shall not affect
                the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.</paragraph>
        </section>
        <section ids="governing-law-waivers-severability-and-assignment" names="governing\ law,\ waivers,\ severability\ and\ assignment">
            <title>Governing law, Waivers, Severability and Assignment</title>
            <paragraph>No matter where you’re located, the laws of Switzerland will govern these
                Terms. If any provisions of these Terms are inconsistent with any applicable
                law, those provisions will be superseded or modified only to the extent such
                provisions are inconsistent. The parties agree to submit to the ordinary
                courts in Bern, Switzerland for exclusive jurisdiction of any dispute
                arising out of or related to your use of the Services or your breach of these
                Terms.</paragraph>
            <paragraph>Our failure to exercise or delay in exercising any right, power, or privilege
                under this Agreement shall not operate as a waiver; nor shall any single or
                partial exercise of any right, power, or privilege preclude any other or
                further exercise thereof.</paragraph>
            <paragraph>You agree that we may assign any of our rights and/or transfer, sub-contract,
                or delegate any of our obligations under these Terms.</paragraph>
            <paragraph>If it turns out that any part of this Agreement is invalid, void, or for any
                reason unenforceable, that term will be deemed severable and limited or
                eliminated to the minimum extent necessary.</paragraph>
            <paragraph>This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement as to the
                subject matter hereof and supersedes any and all prior discussions,
                agreements, and understandings of any kind (including, without limitation, any
                prior versions of this Agreement) and every nature between us. Except as
                provided for above, any modification to this Agreement must be in writing and
                must be signed by both parties.</paragraph>
        </section>
        <section ids="questions-or-comments" names="questions\ or\ comments">
            <title>Questions or comments</title>
            <paragraph>We welcome comments, questions, concerns, or suggestions. Please send us a
                message on our contact page at <reference refuri="mailto:legal@taler-systems.com">legal@taler-systems.com</reference>.</paragraph>
        </section>
    </section>
</document>