General Conditions

1. Introduction

The agreements and terms in these General Conditions set out the rules that apply when using the AskAnOwner site. AskAnOwner provides a platform for the exchange of information about products and services and various categories of experience such as 'places of residence' and 'paintball'. AskAnOwner provides a large-scale 'one-to-one' question-and-answer forum. All the information is supplied on a voluntary basis by website users. Users of the website have various levels of expertise; AskAnOwner does not guarantee the accuracy of the information nor does it state that the relevant expertise has been tested. Your relationship to and use of AskAnOwner (the website) is determined by these General Conditions and, in addition, by every other remark and agreement given and received in relation to the website.

2. Conditions of Access and registration

A user is required to register in order to participate in the question-and-answer system on the AskAnOwner website.

By submitting your registration data you agree with these General Conditions and with the AskAnOwner Privacy Statement.

AskAnOwner retains the right to change the AskAnOwner General Conditions and/or the AskAnOwner Privacy Statement. AskAnOwner will inform you of any major changes made. When any change is implemented, it is assumed that you agree to it unless you inform us within 10 days of the change being made.

Your AskAnOwner password is confidential, subject to an agreement between you and AskAnOwner to keep it secret. Any use of the AskAnOwner website via your user name and password is your own responsibility, even when they are used by third parties. For reasons of security and in order to protect your privacy, you hereby agree to inform AskAnOwner of every unauthorised use of your AskAnOwner user name and/or password as soon as you learn of it.

You agree not to give any false or inaccurate information when you register as 'user' or 'owner' and that you will not register under a false name.

You agree with the content of the AskAnOwner Privacy Statement and in no case will you change the personal profile of another user.

AskAnOwner retains the right to exclude temporarily or permanently any user for any reason whatsoever, as AskAnOwner thinks fit, and this without limiting or breaking the terms of these General Conditions, or not in agreement with European legislation and regulations.

3. Supplying 'content'

3.1 Conditions

AskAnOwner gives you the possibility of providing information to AskAnOwner in a variety of ways. The main way is via the content of questions and answers, but also covers such things as: the content of chat sessions, opinions about and experience with products, services and other consumer matters, choices in life and the discussion of questions put and/or answers given by others (content). The entire content of the question-and-answer interaction will be stored and made available to all visitors to the website.

3.2 Licence

You retain ownership rights to all intellectual property included in the content of our site, but by providing content to AskAnOwner you give AskAnOwner the right to a royalty-free, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to use, for the duration of the copyright, the content or part of the content, in any way whatsoever on the AskAnOwner website or on another website or platform and to give permission to a third party to do the same.

3.3 AskAnOwner's rights

AskAnOwner retains the right, as it thinks fit, to publicise, change, refuse or remove content that is supplied.

AskAnOwner will not approve any publication of materials that could be unlawful under the terms of European legislation.

AskAnOwner retains the right, as it thinks fit, to change the information, content, design, services provided or any other subject on the AskAnOwner website.

3.4 Unsolicited e-mail based on the user's interests profile

By drawing up your interests profile and, in addition, by giving permission to send unsolicited e-mail relative to your interests profile, you give AskAnOwner permission in the meaning of Article 11.7 Paragraph 1 of the Dutch telecommunications act (Telecommunicatiewet) relative to the reception of messages of a commercial, ideal or charitable nature. Every one of these messages will provide the user with the possibility of refusing any further messages from that source.

3.5 Restrictions

You hereby agree that you will not submit any content (essential, data, text, files, links, software, chat and other forms of communication) or other matters that:

  • can have a negative effect on the functioning of computers (or other Internet access equipment), software and/or hardware;
  • can be erroneous, untrue, misleading, insulting, hostile or malicious;
  • can infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party;
  • when published by AskAnOwner could be illegal and/or subject to punishment and could cause loss or damage to AskAnOwner or to third parties.

3.6 Q&A service

When using the question-and-answer (Q&A) service, you are responsible for the correspondence that occurs via you and via your account. You hereby agree that failure to observe any and/or all of the following rules constitutes a failure to observe this agreement:

  • Any use of the Q&A service that is in any way in conflict with local, national or international legislation.
  • Any use of the Q&A service for commercial ends. This includes such things as any communication designed to acquire sales, generate lead or recruit staff.
  • Placing incorrect information on your registration form or pretending to be someone you are not.
  • Submitting material that infringes the intellectual property rights, the privacy or the publication rights of others.
  • Submitting or transmitting illegal advertising, special offers or any other form of illegal invitations (enticements) including but not limited to 'junk mail', 'spam', 'chain letters' and other undesirable forms of e-mail.
  • Submitting competitions, illegal reports or pyramid constructions.
  • Submitting unsuitable questions or answers wholly unrelated to the subject under discussion.
  • 'Stalking', annoying or causing harm in any other way to other users.
  • Spreading viruses, corrupted files or other files or programs that can cause harm to the functioning of other computers or Internet access equipment.
  • Collecting or storing personal information on other website users and enticing, challenging, recruiting, poaching or attempting to entice, challenge, recruit or poach users or 'owners' to use another service which, in AskAnOwner's opinion, is a competitor of AskAnOwner.
  • Any other form of behaviour that impedes another person in the use of and the deriving of benefit from the Q&A service and all other uses of the website.

Behaving in any other way on the website that, in AskAnOwner's opinion, has a negative effect on user experience or is undesirable.

3.7 Your responsibilities

You take full responsibility for all content that you have made known on the AskAnOwner website and which has been published largely as received from you.

3.8 AskAnOwner's responsibilities

AskAnOwner is not responsible for checking the accuracy or otherwise of any of the Information provided by you or by a third party.

4. Intellectual property rights

AskAnOwner retains all intellectual property rights within the AskAnOwner website.

Any publication or duplication of the AskAnOwner website (other than the Information you yourself provide) is forbidden without written permission from AskAnOwner.

By supplying information to AskAnOwner you declare that AskAnOwner does not infringe any copyright of any other intellectual property right of any third party by using this material. You release AskAnOwner from any obligations regarding recompense for loss or damage occasioned by an infringement of any such right or obligation. In such a case, you absolve AskAnOwner from any responsibility for any legal costs involved in defence against a third party. Any assistance you may be required to provide includes all information that is necessary for AskAnOwner's defence.

5. Limitation of liability

AskAnOwner recognises the fact that the type of service AskAnOwner provides means that the quality of the website's content is entirely dependent on the people who have access to it. The service is based on a "like it is" and "as available" construction. For this reason AskAnOwner endorses nothing and precludes any form of guarantee.

In consequence, AskAnOwner gives no guarantees and hereby excludes all guarantees, explicit or tacit, as regards:

  • the quality, accuracy, feasibility or reliability of the content of the AskAnOwner website;
  • the accessibility, quality or availability of any particular use of any service available on the AskAnOwner website;
  • the availability, quality or suitability for use of goods, services or other objects/matters discussed, commented on or in any other way the subject of a particular opinion or recommendation wherever publicised on the AskAnOwner website;
  • any guarantee that the website is free of viruses or any other matter of an infectious or destructive nature.

The user agrees that the use of and trust in the information carried by the AskAnOwner website, and especially any information regarding any product or service, is at the user's own risk.

AskAnOwner accepts no responsibility for the information supplied by any other on-line service to which the AskAnOwner website has a link, and shall not be held responsible or liable for any loss or damage occasioned by or allegedly caused by your use of or trust in information or products or services made available through such (hyper)links. The presence of a (hyper)link on our website does not indicate that AskAnOwner approves of the products or services on the website in question nor that AskAnOwner has any connection with the owner of the website. A (hyper)link to these pages in no way guarantees their content.

AskAnOwner accepts no responsibility whatsoever for a defect or technical problem caused by circumstances beyond our control.

6. AskAnOwner points: terms and conditions

6.1 Introduction

Below are the terms and conditions regarding the AskAnOwner points that a registered AskAnOwner user can earn and exchange.

It is the intention of AskAnOwner that the AskAnOwner points should be exchangeable at selected on-line shops, shops, Internet service providers or manufacturers. At this early stage in the company's development, this cannot as yet be guaranteed.

6.2 Restrictions on AskAnOwner points, on membership and on the applicability of accounts

AskAnOwner does not allow the transaction of AskAnOwner points between different accounts nor does it permit transfer of points to a third party under circumstances other than laid out in these rules.

6.3 The AskAnOwner user's responsibilities

AskAnOwner users are held to adhere to the following rules as laid down in the present document.

All taxes, duties or other costs levied on the AskAnOwner user as a result of the collection of, the exchange of or the benefit derived in some other fashion from his or her AskAnOwner points due to the fact the he or she is an AskAnOwner user are the exclusive responsibility of the AskAnOwner user.

The AskAnOwner user shall not carry out any illegal or incorrect actions regarding the earning or use of AskAnOwner points or in any way at all in his or her efforts to earn or exchange AskAnOwner points.

The AskAnOwner user shall not attempt to collect AskAnOwner points fraudulently, nor employ any other method implying the gaining of AskAnOwner points without fulfilling the implied obligations or supplying the information required to earn AskAnOwner points.

AskAnOwner retains the right to terminate this agreement, to close an AskAnOwner user's account and to retain all AskAnOwner points if, as AskAnOwner thinks fit, it decides that the AskAnOwner user is collecting or issuing AskAnOwner points in a way that damages AskAnOwner, and AskAnOwner can retain the points (without limitation) in cases of:

  • illegal or fraudulent activities;
  • the collection or issue of AskAnOwner points to the benefit of a third party;
  • dishonest earning or issuing of AskAnOwner points;
  • the conscious provision of false or misleading information to AskAnOwner or to an AskAnOwner on-line shop or commercial partner.

6.4 Exclusion by AskAnOwner

AskAnOwner shall not be held responsible for damage incurred by AskAnOwner members as a direct result of commissions received on an AskAnOwner e-mail account whereby use is made of the AskAnOwner user's password, and the AskAnOwner user shall absolve AskAnOwner of any liability for damages or blame in the case of complaints, legal actions, obligations, loss, damage, costs or expenses (direct or indirect, contractual or as a result of court decision or in any other way) suffered, declared or awarded to AskAnOwner, deriving from the use of the AskAnOwner user's e-mail account and password by anyone at all.

6.5 Other questions

AskAnOwner can terminate the AskAnOwner points system at any time. Should AskAnOwner do this, it is possible for AskAnOwner to cancel the points in an AskAnOwner user's account and the user shall have no right to any form of compensation whatsoever for the invalid AskAnOwner points.

AskAnOwner can terminate an AskAnOwner user's account if the account has shown no signs of activity for an uninterrupted period of twelve months. All the AskAnOwner points on that account then become invalid.

This agreement can be modified periodically by AskAnOwner with or without the users being informed. The AskAnOwner user accepts all changes in the method of earning or using AskAnOwner points once any such changes have come into force. If an AskAnOwner user objects to the change(s), the only possibility left open to the user is to close his AskAnOwner account.

AskAnOwner retains the right to close or to suspend the AskAnOwner user's account and/or to cancel the AskAnOwner points that the AskAnOwner user has earned in cases of (though not limited to) fraud or misuse of the AskAnOwner points system by the AskAnOwner user. It is possible for AskAnOwner to act in the same way in cases of infringement or unintentional actions in the earning or issuing of AskAnOwner points either by AskAnOwner or by any other party, and for all other reasonable matters so determined by AskAnOwner to be to its own exclusive and incontestable advantage. The AskAnOwner user has no right to any form of compensation whatsoever for AskAnOwner points declared invalid.

7. Rights and choice of forum

Dutch law applies to the General Conditions and to any agreements based on them. Disagreements regarding the interpretation of these General Conditions, as also regarding any agreements to which they apply, are to be decided, to the exclusion of any other qualified courts, in the lower courts and in the courts of appeal by the Magistrates Court and the District Court of Amsterdam.