Version of 24 February 2025
Please note: this English text is a translation provided for your convenience. Only the German version of this document is legally binding. In the event of any discrepancy or ambiguity between the two versions, the German version shall prevail. You can read it by switching this site to German.
(1) SWINDI GmbH, hereinafter the provider, reserves the right to amend these Terms of Use in whole or in part at any time. Using the provider's service after such an amendment constitutes the user's consent to the new Terms of Use.
(1) At the internet address SWINDI.de the provider offers a service for exchanging media, hereinafter the "service".
(2) The provider makes available a service for sharing photos and videos (hereinafter "media") online, easily, with other registered users (hereinafter "users") or unregistered users (hereinafter "guests"). To do so, users must first create a non-public area (hereinafter "album") through the service, which is given a unique, one-off identifier and for whose administration the user who created the area (hereinafter the "provider of the album") is solely responsible.
(3) The service is divided into a free area and a chargeable premium area. The two differ in the range of features offered.
(4) The provider reserves the right to change the range of features in the free area at any time.
(5) The provider accepts no responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, reliability, currency or usefulness of the media made available.
(1) Using some features of the service (creating an album, for example) requires prior registration.
(2) Registration is only permitted from the age of 14.
(3) Each user (whether a natural or a legal person) may register only once.
(4) There is no entitlement to membership.
(5) The user confirms that they use only their own email address for registration.
(6) The user may not allow third parties to use their account. The user is obliged to keep their access credentials secret and to protect them from access by third parties.
(1) The user is not entitled to store files on the service and/or make them publicly available where those files are incompatible with these Terms of Use and/or with applicable law.
(2) The user is responsible for the media made available through the service by them or by
representatives named by them. The user ensures that they do not breach any applicable legal
provisions when using the service and undertakes not to store or distribute any unlawful or
immoral media through the service. In particular, storing the following content is
prohibited:
(a) Racist or discriminatory content
(b) Content harmful to minors
(c) Content depicting alcohol or drug abuse
(d) Sexual or pornographic content
(e) Content that infringes intellectual property rights, in particular
patent, trademark or copyright
(f) Harassing, defamatory, threatening or insulting content
(g) Content that violates human dignity, for instance by depicting
people who are dying or who are seriously ill physically or mentally
(h) Content that is pornographic, in particular content containing
depictions of children or young people in inappropriately sexualised poses, of sexual abuse, or
of sexual acts between people and animals
(i) Content capable of damaging or destroying hardware or software, in
particular content containing malware such as computer viruses
(3) Unauthorised access, or attempts to gain access to third-party data or to impair the
functioning of the service, is prohibited. Examples:
(a) Distributing unsolicited advertising messages ("spam")
(b) Impairing software or hardware through improper use or intent
(c) Electronic attacks of any kind, such as denial-of-service
attacks
(d) Automated retrieval of information (by bots or spiders, for
example)
(e) Attempts to spy out other users' login credentials or to gain
access to other users' accounts
(4) In the event of a repeated or serious breach of these Terms of Use or of applicable law, the provider is entitled to block the user's access to the service permanently or temporarily and/or to remove all or part of the user's content immediately and irrevocably.
(1) The user or guest remains the holder of all usage rights in the media they upload at all times.
(2) A user or guest who uploads media into an album belonging to a provider of an album grants
that person an unlimited right, in terms of time, to store the uploaded medium and make it
available through the provider's services. This includes using the media in the course of
operating the service, processing them technically and, in particular, creating preview
versions. For this purpose it may be necessary that
- the file format of the medium is changed (converted to other file
formats, for example)
- the resolution of the medium is changed (scaled, for example)
- the dimensions of the medium are changed (cropped, for example)
- the quality is reduced (through downscaling or compression, for
example)
- filters are applied to the medium (sharpening or gradients, for
example)
- metadata (EXIF, XMP, IPTC, ICC data and so on) is removed from the
medium
The user or guest consents to this and confirms that they hold the usage rights in the uploaded
medium necessary for it.
(3) The maximum resolution of media and the minimum and maximum file size of media for upload and download are set by the provider.
(4) The provider of an album is aware that by placing media on the service they make those media accessible to a limited group of other users or guests selected by them, depending on the settings. Those users or guests can, among other things, download such media and send them by email or distribute them otherwise. The provider of the album alone decides which media they make available through the service and to whom they grant access to those media.
(5) The provider is entitled to place advertising — in whatever form — around the media uploaded by users or guests. This may also be context-sensitive advertising relating to the subject matter of experiences (Google AdSense, for example).
(6) The media uploaded by the user or guest, which the service stores on the user's behalf, are third-party information as far as the provider is concerned. The provider does not adopt these media as its own and does not make this information its own.
(7) The provider may offer the user the option of linking to media directly ("hotlinking"). If media uploaded by a user or guest are referenced by hyperlinks from external internet offerings (third-party websites such as external sites, forums or communities), this is likewise information unknown to the provider.
(8) The provider accepts neither warranty nor responsibility for the availability of external internet offerings.
(1) The free area does not include backups in any form. Users are themselves responsible for creating regular backups.
(2) When certain premium products are purchased, a defined amount of backup storage is available to the user from the point of provision for the respective term of the premium product. A product overview, which also sets out the maximum storage volume and the term, can be found at https://swindi.de/premium/product.
(1) The provider is entitled to delete media that
(a) exceed the limit offered by the provider
(b) have exceeded the maximum storage period specified in advance by
the provider
(2) The provider points out that the technical conditions may change and that there is no entitlement to an unlimited or "endless" storage period.
(3) Irrespective of paragraph (1) above, the provider is entitled to refuse the uploading of media, to block or delete them, or to store them under a link other than the one originally given, where the files uploaded by users or guests, or their being made publicly available, breach applicable law or these Terms of Use. This applies in particular to media containing information and/or media as set out in §5 of these Terms of Use, or in cases where the provider is legitimately requested or obliged by third parties to block, delete or store them differently.
(1) The provider is entitled to terminate a user's membership with two (2) weeks' notice.
(2) Where good cause exists, the provider is entitled to block the user's access immediately and to terminate the membership without notice.
(1) The provider is entitled to make changes to its service.
(2) The provider is entitled to discontinue its service subject to two (2) weeks' notice. In the event that its service is discontinued, the provider is entitled but not obliged to delete the media created by users.
(1) The provider is liable for all damage it causes in cases of intent or gross negligence.
(2) In cases of slight negligence, the provider is liable without limitation for injury to life, body or health.
(3) In all other respects the provider is only liable where it has breached a material contractual obligation. Material contractual obligations are understood in the abstract as those obligations whose fulfilment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance the customer may regularly rely. In such cases liability is limited to compensation for the foreseeable damage typical of such contracts.
(4) Liability under the Produkthaftungsgesetz (German Product Liability Act) remains unaffected.
(5) The customer is responsible for backing up their data regularly — that is, in principle daily — in accordance with the state of the art.
(6) In the event of data loss for which the provider is responsible, the provider is liable exclusively for the cost of restoring the data from existing backup copies and for restoring the data that would have been lost even if the data had been backed up properly.
(7) The customer is responsible for password-protecting their own data. In particular, the provider accepts no liability for the unlawful use of data as a result of inadequate or absent password protection.
(8) There is no contractual relationship whatsoever between the customer's own customers and the provider.
(9) Except in the case of direct personal injury or damage to property, the provider's total liability is limited to EUR 500.00. The provider is not liable for lost profits, production downtime, savings not achieved, or indirect and/or consequential damage, unless the provider acted with gross negligence or intent. The provider is not liable for the recovery of data, unless the destruction of the data is attributable to it through gross negligence or intent and the customer has ensured, through appropriate security measures corresponding to the state of the art, that this data can be reconstructed with reasonable effort from data material held by the customer in machine-readable form.
(1) All declarations by the provider may be addressed to the customer by electronic means (by email, for example). This also applies to order confirmations, invoices and reminders. Declarations by the customer may likewise be transmitted to the provider by electronic means.
(2) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, to the exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.
(3) If the user makes use of the provider's services as a freelancer, merchant, legal entity under public law or special fund under public law, the provider's registered office is the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contractual relationship.
(4) Where provisions have not become part of the contract or are invalid, the content of the contract is governed by the statutory provisions.