TERMS AND CONDITIONS
- INTRODUCTION
1.1 When you use the virtual content of the Virtual Institute for Afrikaans (VivA) at www.viva-afrikaans.org or any part thereof, or the VivA app, VivA and the Language Commission's Facebook page, Twitter page, Instagram page, YouTube channel, VivA blogs, VivA webinars, Language Portal, Corpus Portal and/or the dictionary content on the VivA Dictionary Portal (collectively referred to as the "VivA Virtual Content"), you agree to the terms of use set forth herein. The Terms of Use are effective from the moment you use the VivA Virtual Content for the first time and form a permanent agreement between you and VivA. If you do not wish to be bound by all of the following terms, you should not visit, use and/or contribute to the virtual content of VivA.
1.2 VivA is an independent service on the Internet and is operated as an enterprise by the Virtual Institute for Afrikaans NPC (VivA).
1.3 VivA strives to post/publish existing and original material, and to facilitate the open and unlimited exchange of ideas and opinions. The opinions of contributors to this site are therefore their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the management of VivA.
1.4 The services and information provided by VivA are free of charge unless stated otherwise. Although VivA does everything in its power to ensure the quality and accuracy of the services and information it provides, you should not assume that it is necessarily correct and free of errors, or that it is suitable for the purposes for which you intend to use it.
- LIMITED LIABILITY AND DISCLAIMER
2.1 You access and use the VivA virtual content at own risk.
2.2 It is your own duty to maintain the hardware, software and telecommunication lines that you may use to access the VivA virtual content.
2.3 VivA makes no warranties, representations (explicit or implied) with respect to the VivA virtual content. Without prejudice to the general nature of the preceding information, VivA does not guarantee the authenticity or correctness of any information appearing on the VivA virtual content and it is your own responsibility to check its authenticity or accuracy.
2.4 VivA is not liable for any loss, expense or damage of any kind whatsoever that you may suffer or incur as a result of your access to or use of any information contained in this VivA virtual content, including, without limitation, any loss, expense or damage that occurred as a result of any of the following:
2.4.1. erroneous information contained in the VivA virtual content;
2.4.2. unauthorized access or modification of the VivA virtual content by a third party;
2.4.3. the unavailability of the VivA virtual content;
2.4.4. the destruction of your data or computer equipment, or the data or computer equipment of a third party that you used to access the VivA virtual content.
2.5 You absolve VivA of any demand, claim or legal action brought against VivA that results directly or indirectly from your use of, or access to, this VivA virtual content.
2.6 VivA reserves the right to change, update or suspend this VivA virtual content at its sole discretion and at any time.
2.7 You are responsible for any content you submit to VivA, upload to VivA or send to third parties through VivA. VivA is not responsible for the loss of any content you upload or send through the VivA virtual content, and it is your own responsibility to make a backup copy.
2.8 The views on the VivA blogs, VivA webinars and the Language Portal are those of the blogger, presenter and/or author. VivA is only a passive channel for distributing material posted by users to the VivA virtual content. VivA does not endorse any content on VivA blogs or VivA webinars. The information on VivA blogs, VivA webinars and Language Portal is provided without any guarantee.
2.9 The copyright on the contents of corpuses in the corpus portal belongs to the respective suppliers, publishers and/or authors. VivA is only a passive channel for the provision of corpuses provided by the suppliers, publishers and/or authors as part of the VivA virtual content. VivA does not endorse any content on its Corpus Portal. The information on the VivA Corpus Portal is provided without any guarantee.
2.10 Without prejudice to the general scope of the foregoing, you consent to any potential harm that may result from defamation by other VivA users when you post any publication or other contribution on the VivA virtual content or the VivA blogs which is published on the VivA virtual content. Without prejudice to the foregoing, you further absolve VivA of any defamation claim that you may have against another VivA user, or which may be instituted against you by such other users.
2.11 VivA will not be held responsible for any damages, claims for compensation, remuneration, and so on sustained by websites visited from links on the VivA website. Once a user moves to another website via a link on VivA, the user is subject to the terms and conditions of that site.
2.12 VivA accepts that all minors who visit the website or use the ap,p do so under the supervision of their parents or guardians, or at least with the necessary permission of their parents or guardians and will therefore not be liable for any offensive, obscene or violent comments, content, visuals or audio material to which a minor is exposed.
2.13 VivA takes reasonable steps to protect users from damage and cyber hackers, but cannot be held responsible if they suffer damage as a result thereof.
- COOKIES
This website contains cookies, which ensure that the website functions optimally and efficiently. A cookie is a small text file that contains information and is stored on a user's computer when the user visits a website. There are two types of cookies. The first is known as a "persistent cookie". It is permanent and is stored on the user's computer even when leaving the site and closing the search engine. The second type of cookie is temporary, it is known as a "session cookie" and is stored on the user's computer during a visit to the website. When the search engine is closed, the session cookie disappears from the user's computer.
This site uses both types of cookies. It is used for the following reasons:
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- The number of visitors to the website is counted and the type of traffic is analyzed.
- Access is provided to features such as dictionary subscriptions and preferences.
If you, as a user, do not accept the use of cookies, you can change the settings in your search engine (e.g. Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome) to disable cookie storage and remove unwanted cookies.
- PRIVACY
4.1 Any information provided to VivA by the user (including name and surname, email address, cellphone number, date of birth, user's photos, residential address, ID number, if users choose to provide it), IP address and other information during for example a registration process or subscription to a newsletter, as well as any comments made on any of the VivA social media platforms, may be stored by VivA.
4.2 VivA collects information on user demographics and interests as required from time to time for research purposes.
4.3 VivA makes use of cookies (cookies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTPcookie) to collect information about users' internet usage patterns. Cookies can also be used to remember users' information so that certain fields do not have to be entered repeatedly, and serve as a measuring instrument. Information collected through cookies is also subject to the privacy protection guidelines set out here.
4.4 Information can also be used to contact users.
4.5 Collected information is treated as confidential and will only be used with consent or where required, with acknowledgment of information sources.
4.6 VivA uses this personal information for its own purposes only and will never sell or provide any personal information provided by users for marketing purposes.
4.7 There is no limit to how long VivA may store a user's information. It is explicitly stated that users should note that their information, including comments, remains the property of VivA and may be displayed on the VivA social media platforms even after membership or subscription is terminated.
4.8 Information provided by users to VivA, including comments posted, may be used for research, planning, investigation of unlawful use of the website, communication with users and improvement of service and content in general.
4.9 Information provided to VivA by users may be provided to a third-party service provider to enable them to perform their tasks, in which case the third-party service provider will sign an agreement to ensure the confidentiality of this information, or unless a properly authorized warrant determines otherwise. Such a third-party service provider will be subject mutatis mutandis to the same terms as those to which VivA associates.
- COPYRIGHT
5.1 The copyright and all other intellectual property rights of the VivA virtual content, including the layout, design, badges, graphics and multimedia contained therein, belong to VivA unless such rights are expressly reserved or licensed by the supplier, author or publisher before it was published as part of the VivA virtual content.
5.2 You may view and search such works, provided that:
5.2.1. it is for personal use and not used for any commercial purpose;
5.2.2. you do not make copies thereof;
5.2.3. you do not change the works in such a way that it disadvantages VivA;
5.2.4. you use educational material for educational purposes only.
5.3 Without prejudice to the provisions contained in paragraph 4 above, VivA confirms that you own the copyright in contributions, articles and other literary works created by you that you send to VivA. When you post any articles, contributions or other material on the VivA virtual content, you also grant VivA a transferable, perpetual, worldwide and royalty-free licence to use the works for placement on VivA. If the intellectual property of material offered by you for placement on the VivA virtual content belongs to a third party, you undertake to notify VivA thereof and you absolve VivA of any claim that the owner of those intellectual property rights might bring against VivA.
5.4 The trademarks and badges on the VivA texts and pages are the registered and, where applicable, the non-registered trademarks of VivA. Nothing on VivA documents or texts may be interpreted in such a way that it grants you a licence or right to use any trademark without the consent of VivA.
5.5 You may not use our intellectual property or that of a third party for any purpose without our prior written consent.
5.6 All applications for the use of our intellectual property can be addressed to Hierdie e-posadres word van Spambotte beskerm. Jy moet JavaScript ontsper om dit te lees.. If you do not receive a response from us within five business days, you may accept that your request has been rejected.
5.7 It is of utmost importance that the laws that govern copyright and fair use or fair distribution of material belonging to others, including copyright and trademarks belonging to VivA, are respected. Never use or cite more than short pieces of copyrighted work and attribute it to the original author/source as far as possible.
5.8 When republishing or distributing any written text, spoken text, visuals, multimedia or audio products produced or owned by VivA, VivA must be mentioned as the original publication medium of the text or product.
5.9 An active internet link to the original article on the VivA website must be published at republication/distribution.
5.10 No content may be used for commercial and/or business purposes without the consent of VivA consent.
5.11 Any person (legal person or natural person) will plagiarize and/or commit intellectual property infringement by presenting the ideas, published or unpublished, belonging to VivA as if it were their own. These ideas include, but are not limited to, written text, spoken text, visuals, multimedia products, and audio products.
5.12 VivA reserves the right to institute appropriate legal remedies against offenders in this regard.
5.13 VivA reserves the right to refuse access to the website to any IP address. If unlawfulness, unauthorized access and/or potential hazards are suspected, VivA will take the necessary steps to ensure the security of the website, including safeguards as deemed necessary by VivA.
- LINKS
6.1 No person may make a link, including hyperlinks, frames ("iFrames"), markers or similar reference to any part of the VivA virtual content without our prior written consent. VivA may amend or withdraw the consent at any time.
6.2 All applications for such links may be directed to Hierdie e-posadres word van Spambotte beskerm. Jy moet JavaScript ontsper om dit te lees.. If you do not receive a response from us within five business days, you may accept that your request has been rejected.
- LINKS TO THIRD PARTIES
7.1 The VivA virtual content contains links to other websites with information and other material created by third parties. Although VivA carefully selects the links, we cannot accept liability for the content of such web pages. Linking to VivA virtual content does not mean that we have reviewed the content of those web pages, nor does it mean that we approve the content contained therein.
- USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
This clause governs the publication of information and the commenting on the VivA social media platforms and related companies/subdivisions by employees, stakeholders, members, subscribers and the public. For the purposes of this policy, “social media” means any platform for online publishing and commenting, including and without limitation: blogs, wikis, webinars and social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and YouTube.
8.1 Participants and users must adhere to good ethical standards at all times.
8.2 Anyone is welcome to comment and participate in discussions and webinars; however, commentary and participation should be free from racism, sexism, homophobia, inappropriate personal remarks, other forms of hate speech or crude, crass and foul language.
8.3 Commenters are linked to an electronic profile.
8.4 Commenters may only operate one profile on VivA.
8.5 Comments are posted automatically and unchanged on VivA as provided.
8.6 Profiles may have real names or pseudonyms, but must be accompanied by actual contact details of the person making the comment.
8.7 Comments must be made in accordance with the spirit and value system of VivA.
8.8 The deliberate disruption of conversations, including through irrelevant and/or provocative statements, trolling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll%28Internet29) or flaming (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_(Internet)) is not allowed.
8.9 Persecution and/or harassment of other commenters, stalking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalking) by constantly focusing on their comments and obstructing meaningful responses to those commenters is not permitted.
8.10 Repeated posting of the same content in different comments or posting of irrelevant information or links to irrelevant URLs is not permitted.
8.11 Racist and sexist comments, or comments that are otherwise offensive or discriminatory in nature, will not be allowed.
8.12 Other users and commentators will not be personally attacked and/or humiliated.
8.13 Comments must be relevant.
8.14 Comments that incite violence, represent hate speech, use crude language, or are defamatory or blasphemous in nature, will not be tolerated.
8.15 VivA reserves the right to unilaterally remove any comments that do not comply with the terms of this policy without further notice.
8.16 The commenter does not need to be notified if his comment is removed, and reasons for the removal need not be provided by VivA.
8.17 VivA reserves the right to disable the comment feature on the website without notice to users.
8.18 If any person submits a complaint/grievance to another user's comments, it will be investigated by VivA.
8.19 Comments that receive a certain number of complaints, as determined by the editorial staff from time to time, are normally removed.
8.20 Comments that receive well-motivated complaints, even if no other commenters complain, will also be considered for deletion.
8.21 VivA reserves the right, without further notice, to exclude any commenters who repeatedly violate these Terms and Conditions from any further participation in any of VivA activities. In such a case, the offender forfeits any credits or subscription fees already paid.
8.22 By accepting these terms and conditions, users agree that their comments may be amended or removed if they do not comply with these terms.
- GENERAL
9.1 VivA may amend these Terms of Use at any time. By viewing the VivA virtual content, you are committing to the current version of the Terms of Use. You understand that it is your duty to familiarize yourself with the updated version of the Terms of Use.
9.2 A certificate signed by the webmaster will be prima facie proof of the date of publication, as well as the wording of the current as well as previous versions of the terms of use.
9.3 Nothing on the VivA virtual content should be interpreted as an offer but should be considered as a mere invitation to do business with us.
9.4 If any provision of these Terms of Use is not fully enforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in force.
9.5 South African law applies to these terms of use as well as to the relationship between you and VivA in so far as your use of the VivA virtual content is concerned.
