For the access to, and the use of the Website GAYGATE (in the following: „Site“), the following conditions and all applicable legal rules apply. The Terms and Conditions must be read before making use of the Site.
By accessing and using the Site, you accept these terms, which can be adjusted by us at any time.

By using specific services or participating in prize drawings, the user as well as GAYGATE are subjected to all policies and rules, which are communicated by GAYGATE, that are potentially applicable for the service.

All policies and rules are hereby appended to these Terms and Conditions. In case of discrepancy between such rules and the General Terms and Conditions, the respective policy or rule has priority. If you do not agree with these General Terms and Conditions, you are not allowed the make use of the service.

1. DEFINITION

Within the scope of these General Terms and Conditions , the terms below have the following meaning:

“Contract”: these General Terms and Conditions concerning the use of the website;

“Information”: all material offered by GAYGATE through means of this website;
“GAYGATE“: GAY GROUP/GAY.NL BV;
“Registration form”: all personally identifiable information gathered by GAYGATE as soon as a user registrates to attain a membership and/or to participate in an online prize drawing and/or registrates for other reasons;

“Service”: providing access to the information as well as allowing the use of the profile system, the forum, the GAYGATE Messenger and other services (see article 2) granted by GAYGATE for the user;

“User”: you, or the end-user of the service (the term “user” can refer to a male, as well as a female user in the scope of these Terms and Conditions)

And

2. MEMBERSHIP: REGISTRATION, USE, SECURITY AND PAYMENT

2.1 In order to attain a membership, the user has to pass through the registration process and in the course convey true, accurate, up-to-date and complete information regarding his person. During the registration process, the user chooses a “user name” and receives a “password” from GAYGATE. After that, he is responsible for the secrecy and security of the password.
GAYGATE recommends choosing a password that consists of a combination between capital and lower case letters as well as cyphers. The user alone is responsible for all activities that are being undertaken with his membership account.
The user agrees (a) to inform GAYGATE immediately in case of an unauthorized activity within the scope of his membership account or any other attack on the security system, and (b) that he logs out of his account at the end of each user session.
GAYGATE cannot be held responsible for all possible loss or damages that can be traced back to the fact that the user did not abide by the rules described in article 2.
In case the information conveyed by the user is not true, not accurate, not up-to-date or not complete, or if GAYGATE has a reasonable suspicion that the given information is not true, not accurate, not up-to-date or not complete, GAYGATE has the right to restrict or end the membership of the user and exclude the user from the use of the service, as well momentarily as in the future.

2.2 The user accepts that GAYGATE can apply general policies and restrictions concerning the use of the service, regarding under more, but not limited to, the maximum number of days during which messenger messages are being kept, the maximum number of messages that can be sent or received by a registered user, and the maximum number of times that a user is allowed access to the service (and the time allocated for that).
The user agrees, that GAYGATE cannot be held responsible or prosecuted for deleting or failing to save messages or other expressions of communication or contents that are being maintained or sent through the service. The user further acknowledges, that GAYGATE reserves the right to change these general policies and limitations, with or without prior notice, at its own discretion and at any time.

2.3 The user accepts, that GAYGATE can demand a payment for certain services. In case of such a service, GAYGATE will state the respective costs. By making use of the service, the user acknowledges the legal validity of these payment(s). In case that a payment cannot be accounted, or is being denied afterwards by the user, GAYGATE reserves the right to claim the payment nevertheless, and deny access to the service and/or the site for the user.

2.4 The user acknowledges, that GAYGATE is entitled to send a periodic newsletter to the e-mail address provided by the user during the registration process. It is not possible to terminate the receipt of the newsletter without terminating the membership with the service.

3. WARRANTY EXCLUSION

3.1 The service us being provided on basis of the „current status“ and „as far as available”, and GAYGATE does not offer any guarantees, neither implicit nor explicit, with regard to the service which includes, but is not limited to, implicated guarantees or conditions concerning completeness, accuracy, sufficient quality and applicability for a certain purpose.

3.2 The user accepts (a) that it is technically not possible to provide the service failure-free and that GAYGATE does not commit to that; (b) that technical failures can make the service temporarily unavailable; (c) that the results gained through the use of the service can be inaccurate or contain typing errors; and (d) that the operation of the service can be negatively influenced by circumstances and factors that are beyond the control of GAYGATE, including but not limited to, television and telecommunication connections between GAYGATE and the users, in-between different divisions within GAYGATE, and between GAYGATE and other systems and networks.

4. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

The user accepts, that GAYGATE cannot be made liable on the basis of agreements, illegitimate action, failure, legal guiltiness or any other basis, for loss and damages of any kind that originate from, or in any way connected to the use or the functionality of the service or related websites, including but not limited to compensation for loss of business activities, loss of profits, disruption of business activities or any other form of financial damage (also if GAYGATE has previously been informed that such loss or damage could have been prevented).

5. GRANTED RIGHTS / RESERVED RIGHTS

5.1 GAYGATE provides the user wit the information for the purpose of using the service, and the user may download the information to the hard drive of a computer solely for such purposes.

5.2 The information may not be used for any other purpose, including publication, duplication or distribution without GAYGATE’s previous written consent, which the user furthermore requires to upload and/or send material derived from the information, or other material, to GAYGATE.

5.3 By uploading or sending information to GAYGATE the user gives his irrevocable, unlimited, worldwide and for all times valid, royalty-free licence for the use of the respective material, or parts of it, in all media types and at GAYGATE’s own discretion. Furthermore the user distances himself from all so-called moral rights and such kind of rights on the respective material.

6. USER CODE OF CONDUCT

6.1 The user agrees not to make use of the service:

(a) for any kind of unlawful purposes;

(b) in any way that may cause a disruption of the service, harms the service or worsens its efficiency, or affects the functionality of the service in any other way;

(c) for spreading, sending or uploading computer viruses or any other harmful files or programmes;

(d) for spreading, sending or uploading any material of harassing, offending, obscene or threatening nature, or which may lead to irritation, inconveniences or disconcertment for any other reason;

(e) in any way that constitutes an attack of, or an assault onto the rights of an individual person or a juristic person (including but not limited to the copyright or the right of privacy);

(f) for spreading or sending any kind of material with the focus on publicity, promotion and/or advertising without previous written consent by GAYGATE, except if such spreading or sending has explicitly been requested by another user of the service;

(g) for creating a false identity with the purpose of misguiding others as regards the identity of the sender or the origination of a message; and

(h) for spreading, sending, uploading, e-mailing or in any other way supplying unauthorized or unwanted advertising, promotion material, “junk-mail”, “spam”, chain letters, pyramid scheme or any other kind of duplicating or unwanted messages;

(i) In case the user has not yet reached the minimum age of 16.

6.2 GAYGATE does not execute any checks regarding the information supplied to the service by the user and therefore does not offer any guarantee concerning its accuracy, integrity or quality. By using the service the user acknowledges that he may be confronted with information which is impure, obscene or unwanted.

6.3 GAYGATE cannot be held liable for any kind of information or any kind of damages that derive from information that has been sent, e-mailed or in any other way been distributed through the service.

7. SPAM/HARVESTING

7.1 The use of the service and of the information on the side is solely intended for and allowed with the focus on communication and discussion with other users on the site, in which applies that the nature of communication may not be commercial, but is solely allowed for private purposes. Under no circumstances may the service or the personal information be used for any other purpose, including an interdiction of the following points:

(a) (unasked for) initiating of any kind of commercial communication through the means of e-mail, fax, SMS, MMS, mail, the GAYGATE Messenger, the user profile or any other way of interaction with the users, furthermore the direct or indirect advertising of goods, services or the image of a company, an organisation or a person, regardless whether these products or services bear a (indirect) relation to the character of the service or serve the potential interest of a user;

(b) any other form of unasked for communication;

(c) collecting e-mail addresses of users, regardless of the purpose

7.2 In case the user acts (partly) against the rules described in this article he will, without further warnings or notification, and without activation of a judicial authority, be directly be effected with a monetary fine of € 500,- (five hundred euros) per case, in which sending an illegitimate statement to a user is being seen as one case.

8. DAMAGE RELEASE

8.1 The user obliges that in case he holds a claim or demand, originated from the use of the service, against another user, he will pursue the realisation of the claim or demand independently and without mention on GAYGATE.

8.2 The user will keep GAYGATE free of any damage and release from all claims and demands for compensation, costs and disbursement, where under legal costs that have been derived from an assault on these Terms and Conditions or any other usage of the service, information or the website by the user.

8.3 The user acknowledges that GAYGATE does not control the kind of content of the information or the programme being sent or received by the user, and that GAYGATE does not keep track of the purpose for which the user uses the service.

9. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The user acknowledges that all author rights, trademarks and all other intellectual property rights that mark part of the service and are being acquired by, or are in the possession of GAYGATE, remain property of GAYGATE and its licensers.

10. OPSCHORTING EN BEEINDIGING

GAYGATE reserves the right to terminate the agreement and/or suspend the service with immediate effect in case the user breaks the agreement by not abiding to these Terms and Conditions.

11. PRIVACY POLICY

In article 10 is described how GAYGATE handles registration information. GAYGATE collects the following registration information: first name of the user, his last name, his e-mail address, his date of birth, and his gender and postcode if he chose to enter that information. In case the user uses the profile system (see article 2) he furthermore agrees with the terms and conditions for this service and acknowledges that GAYGATE collects registration information and possibly other information.

Who we are
In this document the privacy policy of the service provider is described more specifically. The provider is a subsidiary of GAY.NL BV, which in turn is part of the GUTS Holding BV. The provider and its related companies are in the following referred to as “we”, “us”, “our” or “GAY.NL BV”.

Below is being explained how we treat the personal information provided by you (i.e. every information which identifies you as a person and which is referred to as “your information” in the description of the privacy policy). The privacy policy is valid for all information about you that we collect on the websites located at www.gaygate.nl, www.gaygate.be or www.gaygate.de. The privacy policy is not valid for the websites of other organisations or persons, to which we refer to via a hyperlink. In other countries there are different laws and regulations regarding collecting and usage of personal information.

How we collect and utilize your personal information
There are different ways in which we collect your information. Firstly, we collect the information that you directly provide us with (for example by entering information about yourself into an online form when participating in a prize drawing or promotional campaign, or if you make use of the profile system (see article 2)). In general we utilize your information to handle requests or orders, to enable you to take part in prize drawings or promotional campaigns, or to make you let use of the profile system in case you indicated that you are interested in the service, further to find out more about your preferences so we can link them to products or services that are relevant for you, or for promotional activities of GAYGATE.

Besides we proceed your information the interaction between you and us (as described above). With your approval, we (and, if applicable, our partners or other reliable third parties) utilize your information for marketing activities, market research, analysis and other purposes related to that field. It is your decision to which extent you authorize us to utilize your information for these purposes.

These purposes include for example:
(a) Occasional communication with you by e-mail and (in case you gave us the respective information through the website or in another way) by mobile phone (through SMS messages or, if your mobile phone supports the respective technologies, through EMS or MMS messages), or by mail, regarding information, offers, newsletters you signed up for, and possibly other material you could be interested in;

(b) Making your information available for reliable partners and third parties for the same purposes as mentioned above. In case these parties are located a non-European country in which less strict laws and regulations regarding the protection of your privacy apply, we will inform you about this in advance, which enables you to decide for yourself whether you would like to agree to the use of your information, or prefer to deny it.

(c) Realisation of market research, for example will we ask you to take part in studies about a current subject, or about subjects that we or reliable partners or third parties handle. We will always inform you how we are going to proceed the submitted information before you participate in the respective study.

(d) Possible analysis of your information through us or third parties that act on our behalf, in which not your identity as a user is relevant, but the purpose is to generate statistics so we can establish trends regarding the traffic on our sites, and improve our sites based on statistic information.

Automatic collection of information
Besides the information about you that we gather as described above, we also appraise information we receive by utilizing so-called cookies. By the means of cookies we assemble under more the following information:

[Log-in information: the e-mail address, the access code, the Internet Protocol (IP-) address which is being used to connect your computer with the internet, the type and version of your browser, the operating system and the platform you’re using to get connected to the internet; the cookie number, the parts of the site visited by you and what you are searching for, the Uniform Resource Locators (URL's) of the sites through which you accessed our sites, and through which page you left our sites, mentioning the time and date].

In the work panel of the most browsers you can retrieve information about changing the internet settings of your computer by clicking on Help, for example you can choose to be notified every time you receive a cookie, or you can block all cookies. Please note that some parts of our sites possibly will not work for you if you disable cookies.

We can assign an advertising agency to offer the user advertising messages upon his visit to our site. The agency is allowed to utilize information (except your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number) regarding your visit to our site which makes it possible to offer you advertising messages for products and services that you might be interested in. For offering such messages, the respective company can send a singular cookie to your browser.

Changing or removing your information
You can change or remove the information you provided through our site at any time via the menus “My Account” and “My Profile” - these menus will appear below the logo as soon as you are logged in.
If you would like to advise us about changes regarding your personal information or preferences, or if you have questions or remarks concerning privacy-related matters, you can always send an e-mail to info@gaygate.nl.

Other announcements
GAY.NL reserves the right to gain access to your information to make these available in order to abide by effective laws and regulations, to meet legal requests made by authorities, organisations or persons who engage in legislation, or parties whose request we consider to be reasonably legitimate accusations concerning a possible violation of our services from your side with regard to our aim to keep our systems performing in the best possible way, and to protect ourselves and our users.

Security
We took measures to make sure that your information is sufficiently protected, under more by limiting the number of people that has physical access to our database servers, as well as security systems and access codes that prevent unauthorized access and gaining of information.

Transmission
In the unlikely event that we partly or completely sell our business activities to another party or hand it over in any other way, we reserve the right to transfer your information as a part of the business means.

Changes to the privacy policy
We strive to inform you by e-mail about possible changes to the policy which take relevant influence on the way we are processing your information. Nevertheless we urge the users to handle their privacy in a responsible way and therefore regularly check for themselves whether there have been changes to the policy, and if necessary adjust their settings accordingly.

12. CHANGES TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE SERVICE

GAYGATE reserves the right to change these General Terms and Conditions from time to time, by adjusting this document upon previous notification. If the user proceeds using the service after the announcement of such changes, it is presumed that he agrees to the respective change(s). It is part of the user’s responsibility to regularly read this document in order to stay updated about potential changes to these Terms and Conditions. In case the user prefers not to agree to the changed rules of these Terms and Conditions he is obliged to stop the use of the service immediately and terminate his membership on the site. GAYGATE reserves the right to update or adjust the service from time to time.

13. SEPARABILITY

Every regulation of these Terms and Conditions concerning the exclusion or limitation of liability, is to be treated independently and is applicable even if one or more of these conditions are being considered inapplicable or nonenforceable due to specific circumstances and stays active also if these Terms and Conditions come to halt.

14. DISCLAIMER

No disclaimer released by GAYGATE may be interpreted as a disclaimer with regard to a previous or following violation of any element of these Terms and Conditions.

15. APPLICABLE LAW

These General Terms and Conditions are subject to the Dutch Law, and the parties irrevocably comply with the exclusive authority of the Dutch Court of Law.