Terms and Conditions

User Agreement

Introduction

SOTHETIC is about celebrating creativity. To make this online destination for creativity available, it is essential all SOTHETIC users respect the intellectual property rights of others, including copyright and trademarks. You must only upload content you have created yourself and have permission to use and authorize others to use. If you are a customer or browser, please respect the copyright and trademarks of all the works you see or buy on SOTHETIC. Respecting other people’s intellectual property is an essential principle of SOTHETIC’s community.

Displaying your work on SOTHETIC puts it out there for the world to see. You need to be aware that publishing your work in this way attracts legal responsibilities. It is up to you to make sure you are not breaking any laws by publishing your work through SOTHETIC.

It is important you read the agreement below. Using this website means you accept this agreement. If you do not agree with its terms, do not use this website.

Legal Agreement

All visitors (“user”, “you”, “your”) to the SOTHETIC website at www.SOTHETIC.com (“the website”) are entering a binding legal agreement on the following terms (the “agreement”) when using the website. The agreement is between the user and either or both of SOTHETIC ( “SOTHETIC”, “we”, “us”, “our” refer to SOTHETIC) and use of this website indicates continued acceptance of this agreement.

Eligibility

Our services are available only to, and may only be used by, individuals who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. Our services are not available to persons under 16 years of age.

Amendment to this agreement

We may amend the terms of this agreement from time to time, and we will let you know about these changes either by sending you an email to the email address you have registered with SOTHETIC or by displaying information about the changes on our home page, or both. Either way, your continuing use of the website will be taken to be acceptance of the new terms.

Our service

SOTHETIC provides a range of services (the “SOTHETIC service”) which, amongst other things, enable you to publish, sell, discuss and purchase art; interact with other members; and receive the benefits of SOTHETIC's facilitation of product fulfilment, including payment processing, customer services, third party product manufacturing. In addition, SOTHETIC will arrange for the deliver of the physical product to your customer.

The digital content on the website (“your content”) may be information, text, data, graphics,images, photographs, sound, video, music or any other material posted online by users. Any content that you upload into the portfolio section of your account is described as your “art”.Your art may be viewed by all users of the website once you elect to publish it. You may order a physical product based on your own art or you may offer your art for sale as part of the sale of a physical product. If you or a customer decide to place an order, then SOTHETIC will forward your instructions to third parties who will manufacture and ship the physical product in the form specified by you or the customer (“the product”).

Putting content on the SOTHETIC site

You keep the copyright in any content you submit or upload to the website. In order to receive the SOTHETIC services you grant SOTHETIC a non-exclusive license to use and archive the content in accordance with or as reasonably contemplated by this agreement.

When you submit or upload content on the website you represent and warrant that:

  • you own all copyright in the content, or if you are not the owner, that you have permission to use the content, and that you have all of the rights required to display, reproduce and sell the content;
  • the content you upload will not infringe the intellectual property rights or other rights of any person or entity, including copyright, moral rights, trade mark, patent or rights of privacy or publicity;
  • your use of the website will comply with all applicable law, rules and regulations;
  • the content does not contain material that defames or vilifies any person, people, races, religion or religious group and is not obscene, pornographic, indecent, harassing, threatening, harmful, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, inflammatory or otherwise objectionable;
  • the content does not include malicious code, including but not limited to viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, or any other computer programming routines that may damage, interfere with, surreptitiously intercept, or expropriate any system, program, data, or personal information; and
  • the content is not misleading and deceptive and does not offer or disseminate fraudulent goods, services, schemes, or promotions.

SOTHETIC reserves the right to review and if in its sole discretion deemed necessary, remove any content from the website and / or cancel your account, because that content breaches your agreement with us and / or any applicable laws, or otherwise. You agree to indemnify SOTHETIC in respect of any direct or indirect damage caused due to your breach of one or more of these warranties.

Offering your art for sale on a physical product

Any member may offer their art for sale on a physical product on the website by appointing SOTHETIC to facilitate the transaction on the terms set out in the Services Agreement in Appendix A. By agreeing to the terms of this user agreement you expressly agree to the terms of the Services Agreement in Appendix A, which will apply from the date on which you offer your first art for sale on a physical product and your continued use of the website will constitute ongoing agreement to the terms therein as updated from time to time.

Purchasing a Product on SOTHETIC

Users can purchase products on the SOTHETIC website using a valid credit card or the PayPal system.

You do not have to be a member to purchase a product.

The price you pay is fixed at the time of ordering.

You may not cancel an order once it has been submitted.

It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure the product delivery address is correct. SOTHETIC takes no responsibility for any product a customer does not receive because of errors in the delivery address given to us.

We do not warrant, endorse, make representations about or recommend any content or art offered or provided by any member.

Paying you after your product is sold

Delivery

Delivery will be facilitated pursuant to the customer's instructions by postal or courier service and will be paid for by the customer at the price indicated at the time of purchase. SOTHETIC will charge shipping charges to the customer which will vary depending upon the size and price of the product.

Damaged Goods

If a product is delivered to a customer, whether in electronic or printed format, that is electronically or physically damaged in some way (for example, a file does not download, a framed print has cracked, or there are loose or torn pages in a book) SOTHETIC will happily contact the manufacturer or seller to issue a replacement copy of the product after receiving reasonable proof of that damage.

If you receive a damaged product, then you must email SOTHETIC customer service within 14 days of receipt to tell us about the nature of the damage and to arrange for a new product to be sent to you at no cost to you. We may require you to return the product as a condition to arranging for a new product or other remedy. You will bear the direct cost of returning the product. In addition to the damaged goods policy described above, SOTHETIC may in its discretion offer other remedies for customers who wish to return products. Any such remedies will be published in the Help Centre section of the SOTHETIC website.

Please be aware that publishing to the website is creator-controlled and we do not screen all of the content on our website. It is the customer’s responsibility to verify the quality of the content (including but not limited to misspelled words, grammatical errors, formatting, design or overall appearance) before ordering a product. This damaged goods policy does not apply to content, only to the physical product.

Excess Inventory

You grant SOTHETIC permission to dispose of any inventory that becomes excess as a result of refund, reprint, fraud, product sampling or promotional activities, in any manner we see fit.

Specific warnings

You must ensure that your access to this website and the SOTHETIC service is not illegal or prohibited by laws that apply to you.

You must take your own precautions to ensure that the process that you employ for accessing this website and the SOTHETIC service does not expose you to the risk of viruses, malicious computer code or other forms of interference which may damage own computer system. We do not accept responsibility for any interference or damage to any computer system that arises in connection with your use of this website or any linked website.

We do not accept liability for any losses arising directly or indirectly from a failure to provide the SOTHETIC service, corruption to or loss of data, errors or interruptions, any suspension or discontinuance of the SOTHETIC service, or any transmissions by others in contravention of the registered members’ obligations as set out in this agreement.

You acknowledge that we may not be able to confirm the identity of other registered members or prevent them acting under false pretenses or in a manner that infringes the rights of any person.

Intellectual Property Rights and license

By submitting listings to SOTHETIC, you grant SOTHETIC a non-exclusive, worldwide, sublicense able and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of and display the content of such listings in connection with SOTHETIC's (and its successors' and affiliates') services and business in facilitating the sale of your product, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the SOTHETIC site (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of the SOTHETIC site a non-exclusive license to access your content through the site, and to use, reproduce, distribute, and display such content as permitted through the functionality of the site and under this User Agreement. The above licenses terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete your listings from the SOTHETIC site. The above licenses granted by you in user comments you submit, are perpetual and irrevocable.

All intellectual property rights in this website and the SOTHETIC service (including the software and systems underlying the SOTHETIC service, and text, graphics, logos, icons, sound recordings and software) are owned by or licensed to us. Other than for the purposes of, and subject to the conditions prescribed under relevant Copyright and Trade Mark legislation throughout the world, and except as expressly authorized by this agreement, you may not in any form or by any means:

  • use, adapt, reproduce, store, distribute, print, display, perform, publish or create derivative works from any part of this website; or
  • commercialize any information, products or services obtained from any part of this website,

without our written permission.

If you use any of our trade marks in reference to our activities, products or services, you must include a statement attributing that trade mark to us. You must not use any of our trade marks in or as the whole or part of your own trade marks; in connection with activities, products or services which are not ours; in a manner which may be confusing, misleading or deceptive; or in a manner that disparages us or our information, products or services (including this website).

Linked websites

This website may contain links to other websites (“linked websites”). Those links are provided for convenience only and may not remain current or be maintained.

We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices associated with linked websites.

Our links with linked websites should not be construed as an endorsement, approval or recommendation by us of the owners or operators of those linked websites, or of any information, graphics, materials, products or services referred to or contained on those linked websites, unless and to the extent stipulated to the contrary.

Disclaimer

We do not represent or guarantee that the SOTHETIC service or this website, or any other website that is accessible using a hyperlink from this website will be free from errors or viruses. We do not represent or guarantee that access to the SOTHETIC service or these websites will be uninterrupted.

You acknowledge that the SOTHETIC service or this website may be affected by outages, faults or delays. Such outages, faults or delays may be caused by factors, including technical difficulties with the performance or operation of our or another person’s software, equipment or systems, traffic or technical difficulties with the Internet or infrastructure failures.

We do not warrant that any members’ uploads to this website will be protected against loss, or misuse or alteration by third parties. We do not warrant that all uploaded content will be available on our website. If we elect in our sole discretion to make available content on our website, we do not warrant that it will be available within a certain time frame.

We do not accept responsibility for any loss or damage, however caused (including through negligence), that you may directly or indirectly suffer in connection with your use of this website or any linked website, nor do we accept any responsibility for any such loss arising out of your use of or reliance on information contained on or accessed through this website.

To the extent permitted by law, any condition or warranty that would otherwise be implied into these terms and conditions is hereby excluded. Where legislation implies any condition or warranty, and that legislation prohibits us from excluding or modifying the application of, or our liability under, any such condition or warranty, that condition or warranty will be deemed included but our liability will be limited for a breach of that condition or warranty to one or more of the following, which we may offer as a gesture of goodwill:

  1. if the breach relates to goods:
    • the replacement of the goods or the supply of equivalent goods;
    • the repair of such goods;
    • the payment of the cost of replacing the goods or of acquiring equivalent goods; or
    • the payment of the cost of having the goods repaired; and
  2. if the breach relates to services:
    • the supplying of the services again; or
    • the payment of the cost of having the services supplied again

This disclaimer set out in these terms and conditions does not attempt or purport to exclude liability arising under statute if, and to the extent, such liability cannot be lawfully excluded.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold us, our officers, directors, employees, agents and representatives harmless, as well as, all third parties printing, manufacturing and/or otherwise fulfilling the products you are selling via the website, their officers, directors, employees, agents and representatives harmless, from and against any and all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs (including reasonable legal fees) or other expenses that arise directly or indirectly out of or from:

  • your breach of any clause of this agreement;
  • any allegation that any materials that you submit to us or transmit to the website infringe or otherwise violate the copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property or other rights of any third party; and/or
  • your activities in connection with the website.

This indemnity will be applicable without regard to the negligence of any party, including any indemnified person.

Privacy policy

Your privacy is very important to us. Users of our website should refer to our privacy policy – which is incorporated into this agreement by reference, for information about how we collect and use personal information.

Security of information

No data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed as totally secure. We strive to protect such information, however we do not warrant and cannot ensure the security of any information that you transmit to us. Accordingly, any information that you transmit to us is transmitted at your own risk.

Termination of access

Access to this website may be terminated at any time by us without notice. Our disclaimer will nevertheless survive any such termination.

Dispute Resolution

This User Agreement and all disputes relating to this User Agreement, or relating to your use of any part of the SOTHETIC service, will be exclusively resolved under confidential binding arbitration held in United States Of America.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, SOTHETIC may seek injunctive or other equitable relief, from a court of competent jurisdiction. You and SOTHETIC agree that any dispute resolution proceedings will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class, consolidated or representative action. You and SOTHETIC agree that any cause of action arising out of or related to the SOTHETIC site (including but not limited to any services provided or made available therein) or this Agreement must commence within one (1) year after the cause of action arose; otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.

If you have a dispute with one or more users or sellers, you release SOTHETIC (and SOTHETIC's officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures and employees) from claims demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind of nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes

General

We accept no liability for any failure to comply with this agreement where such failure is due to circumstances beyond our reasonable control.

If we waive any rights available to us under this agreement on one occasion, this does not mean that those rights will automatically be waived on any other occasion.

If any of the terms of this agreement are held to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, the remaining terms and conditions shall nevertheless continue in full force.

This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, express or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement.

APPENDIX A - Services Agreement

You wish to use SOTHETIC’s services to facilitate marketing and sale of your art on a physical product and to arrange for manufacture of the physical product ("your product") once an order has been made through www.SOTHETIC.com ("the website"). SOTHETIC will provide these services on the terms set out in this Services Agreement. Additionally, SOTHETIC will provide for delivery of such products to the customer.

  1. Services

1.1 SOTHETIC, acting as independent contractor under your instructions in relation to the performance of marketplace services, will market to and obtain orders from customers for the purchase of your products over the website and on instruction from you. SOTHETIC will arrange for third parties to fulfil those orders by facilitating payment for and manufacture of your products (“Services”). SOTHETIC will then arrange for the delivery of your products as per the customer’s instructions. Whilst SOTHETIC’s capacity is one of independent contractor in relation to the Services, it acts your agent specifically in relation to the sales transaction between you and the customer who buys your product – see further clause 5.2 below.

1.2 SOTHETIC will provide the Services pursuant to this agreement until termination in accordance with its terms.

1.3 You agree that SOTHETIC is free to act in any capacity for any other person interested in promoting, marketing and obtaining orders from members of the public for the purchase of their arts over the website, including any art that is the same as, or similar to, your products.

  1. License and standing instructions

2.1 You grant SOTHETIC a non-exclusive license to use your intellectual property relating to your products for the purpose of enabling us to carry out the Services.

2.2 You hereby instruct SOTHETIC to facilitate the sale of your product which includes payment, processing and arranging for manufacturing your product (s) in respect of the orders placed by the customers via the website and SOTHETIC will facilitate such payment, and manufacturing in accordance with reasonable business practices unless you otherwise instruct prior to the placement of that order by a customer.

  1. Sale of your products

3.1 The retail price charged to customers who purchase your product is made up of the manufacturing fee charged by the third party manufacturer, SOTHETIC’s fee for hosting the marketplace and facilitating the transaction (the manufacturing fee and SOTHETIC’s fee are referred to collectively, and inclusive of tax, as the “base amount”), your creator margin (“your margin”), and any relevant sales tax (such as Sales Tax, GST, VAT, etc) that SOTHETIC and / or you (as the case may be) are liable to account for to the appropriate tax authorities. Shipping charges will also be added to the retail price

3.2 You agree that SOTHETIC makes no representation that it will be able to procure an order for your products, whether at the retail price or at all, nor that you will obtain any benefit by entering into this Services Agreement.

3.3 All items purchased from the website are manufactured pursuant to arrangements with third party suppliers under your instructions. This means that title and risk for loss for such items pass from you to the customer/purchaser without passing through us prior to the goods being delivered to the customer under the customer’s instructions.

  1. Payment terms

4.1 You authorize SOTHETIC to collect, hold and distribute the retail price (“sale proceeds”) from customers on the terms set out in this clause 4. SOTHETIC will also charge the customer for the shipping which will be retained by us and not affect the amount to be distributed to you.

4.2 You authorize SOTHETIC to deduct the base amount (which includes SOTHETIC’s margin for facilitation services, including tax where applicable) from the sales proceeds for your products before distributing your margin (which will include tax where applicable).

4.3 We will pay your margin in accordance with the third party Visceral and Paypal services

  1. Taxation responsibility

5.1 Except as required otherwise by applicable Federal or State Taxation Laws or Regulations:

  • (a) Each party is responsible for their own taxes associated with each transaction and will account for any taxes imposed by governments or governing authorities, and related accounting or audit requirements arising out of, as a result of, incidental to, or in connection with obligations under this Services Agreement. We recommend that you consult with your tax advisor as to the application of taxes for you, as the seller of the merchandise. This may include Sales Tax, VAT, GST and other transactional taxes;
  • (b) SOTHETIC will not collect or pay taxes on your behalf as SOTHETIC is merely acting as an agent in facilitating the sale of your product to the customers. As stated in clause 4.2 of this Agreement, the amounts distributed to you will be deemed to be inclusive of any taxes, if applicable. You will at all times be solely responsible for reporting and remitting any tax liabilities arising out of the sale of your products together with any potential interest or penalties that any tax authority may levy as a result of non-compliance. If you are registered for VAT in the EU, SOTHETIC may, upon your request, provide you with a VAT invoice for any charges levied by us; and
  • (c) all tax-related reporting responsibilities by you to relevant tax authorities are entirely your responsibility.
  1. Indemnity

6.1 You hereby indemnify and will keep SOTHETIC indemnified from and against all claims, debts, accounts, expenses, costs, liens, actions and proceedings of any nature whatsoever, whether known or unknown by any person, arising from, incidental to, or by virtue of, the appointment, or any breach or non-performance of your obligations under this Services Agreement or arising out of your willful act, neglect or default in the performance of such obligations.

6.2 This clause 6 will survive the termination of this Services Agreement.

  1. Limitation of liability

7.1 In no case will SOTHETIC be liable for any consequential loss or damage suffered by you arising from this Services Agreement. To the extent permitted by law, all warranties and conditions implied by law are hereby expressly excluded.

  1. Terminating this agreement

8.1 You can give notice of termination of this Services Agreement by closing your account in the method described in the User Agreement.

8.2 SOTHETIC may give notice of termination of this Services Agreement to you in writing at any time.

8.3 After notice of termination in the manner described in either clause 8.1 or 8.2, you authorize us to complete any transactions in progress in relation to your products, which we will do on the terms of this Services Agreement. Termination of this Services Agreement will take effect once these transactions have been completed.

8.4 Upon termination of this Services Agreement by either party, SOTHETIC will pay you any accrued member margin proceeds from your account, less a US$5 administration fee.