Terms And Conditions

CouchTycoon Terms and Conditions
 	
	The following document is the terms and conditions for the Internetservice CouchTycoon. These terms and conditions shall regulate the contractual relationship between PIPELINE ventures GmbH which is the operator of CouchTycoon (including its affiliates and subsidiaries and its used trademark "CouchTycoon" ) and any individual who uses the telecommunication services provided by CouchTycoon (in the following referred to as "member").
 	
The CouchTycoon website is an Internet platform shown as a game that gives it's members the chance to participate in real life companies´success and flop. Members are able to act with and against other members by exchanging shares for CouchChips and vice versa.  
	
TABLE OF CONTENTS 	

1. GENERAL 	
2. Special Rules for Members Acting as "Entrepreneur" 	
3. Special Rules for All Members 	
3.1. REGISTRATION 	
3.2. MEMBER ACCOUNTS 	
3.3. ENTRY FEES AND WINNINGS 	
3.4. PAYMENT AND FEES 	
3.5. FUNDAMENTAL RULES OF USE AND THE INTERDICTION OF ABUSE 	
3.6. SEVERANCE AND TERMINATION 	
3.7.  LIABILITY AND CORRECTIVE ACTION FOR TRADES AND TRANSACTIONS 	
3.8. AMENDMENTS AND REVISIONS TO THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS 	
3.9. SEVERABILITY CLAUSE 	
3.10. APPLICABLE LAW 
	
	1. GENERAL 	

1.1. Membership: In general, CouchTycoon participate in the game by using real money converted to the virtual currency "CouchChips". 	
1.2. Registration: The use of the telecommunication services provided by the CouchTycoon website requires member registration. Member registration is free of charge for all members. No registration fee shall be incurred.
No user is entitled to registration at CouchTycoon. Furthermore, CouchTycoon reserves the right to reject registrations either by means of E-mail or any other form of communication, and is not required to specify any reason for rejection, especially in cases of multiple memberships or fraudulent activities.

Users are NOT allowed to:
- Act in a manner that negatively affects other users' ability to engage in the Web site or Services;
- Engage in any activity that is contrary to or which would adversely affect the purpose or intention of the Web site or Services, including but not limited to, actually or attempting to manipulate, corrupt or otherwise affect the outcome of the Services, in whole or part, by, among other methods, registering multiple accounts under the same or different names
- do "insider trading" or any other kind of manipulation 	
1.3. Confidentiality: Every user/member accepts the fact, that any information regarding or published from/about a project on CouchTycoon is confidential. It is not allowed to copy projects, single parts of projects and/or publishing information about any project such as but not solely planned goals, measures, ideas or numbers outside a CouchTycoon related website or communication tool.
 	
1.4. Shares/Stakes: CouchTycoon is a game. So no purchase of a share on the CouchTycoon websites represents a claim on a real share of any project or company. CouchTycoon uses the through the purchase of CouchChips acquired USD to buy real shares of the real company that is shown on the CouchTycoon website and only allows users (members) to act LIKE a real shareholder of this company.	
1.5. CouchChips: CouchChips are the virtual money used on CouchTycoon to act. CouchChips can be earned by converting US Dollar to CouchChips via PayPal/bank transfer. CouchChips can also be re-converted to US Dollar. Converting from USD to CouchChips or vice versa reprsents not the purchase of any service or product. Only LIQUID CouchChips can be re-converted to USD. CouchChips spent for the purchase of a virtual share can not be re-converted. If a member wants to re-convert CouchChips to USD that he spent in shares, he has to offer the shares on the market place on CouchTycoon to find an other user who buys these shares first. CouchTycoon does not guarantee that a member will buy these shares. CouchTycoon is not forced to buy any member´s shares.	
1.6. Naming/Wording: Names and words used on CouchTycoon like "share", "portfoliocard", "project", "company", "issuing-couch", "CouchChips" are only used for illustration. Words or phrases like "buy shares" do not implicate the claim of the purchase of a real share for example.	
1.7. Pseudonyms: CouchTycoon is allowed to set up members/user profiles by using pseudonyms for optimizing system, marketing or advertising proposes. If you do not agree, please write an e-mail to: contact@couchtycoon.net.	
1.8. ChanceCards: ChanceCards are solely intended for amusement purposes. But they can cost a member some CouchChips as well as a member can earn some CouchChips. Clicking on the ChanceCard button will open a new site where details will be shown and a new confirmation for that step will be necessery. The CouchChips amount one (or more) member loses an other member (or other members) will win.	
1.9 Usernames: Usernames may not infringe upon the rights of third parties, and may not violate rules of good conduct. 	
1.10 Extent of Participation 	
1.10.1. Requirements for Use: Members may use the CouchTycoon offers on its internet website. The use of CouchTycoon or certain features offered may, however, be dependant upon certain conditions such as type of membership (different types may be used in future), age, proof of payment, amount of transactions, etc. The member/user allows CouchTycoon to use Javascript and Cookies and has to activate it too. 	
1.10.2. Limitations of Use: A Member's entitlement to use of the CouchTycoon website and the features that are offered therein are solely dependant upon the current technical status at CouchTycoon. Temporary disturbances may be experienced due to the interruption of telecommunications, power outage, hardware and software failures, etc. 	
1.10.3. Maintenance Periods: Maintenance times are conducted mainly for the purpose of ensuring security and integrity of the server. Members shall be notified of maintenance periods ahead of time. A portion, or sometimes all of the features of the CouchTycoon website will no longer be available during maintenance periods. Transactions that have begun prior to such maintenance periods shall not be extended, despite the fact that no transaction can take place during maintenance periods. 	

	2. Special Rules for Members Acting as "Entrepreneur" 	
2.1. Letter Of Couch Issuing: Upon registration as a member the member accepts that posting/listing a project on CouchTycoon will make it neccessery to sign an ADDITIONAL contract with CouchTycoon that makes the member to an "entrepreneur". This additional contract varies in content and dues on each project. Without signing such an additional contract between the member and CouchTycoon a member is not allowed to post a project or raise money on/from CouchTycoon.
 	
	3. Special Rules for All Members 
	
3.1. REGISTRATION 	
3.1.1 Registration for All Members: Participation as a member requires submitting certain personal information, as well as depositing real funds onto your account in US Dollar (in the following reffered to as USD), the currency used for all transactions concerning the conversions to and from CouchChips. With registration at CouchTycoon the user agrees that CouchTycoon publishes all user information to other users. Not published information will be users e-mail addresses and personal addresses. All other kind of user-information (including CouchChips balances and information regarding investments a user did) will be published.	
3.1.2. Eligibility Requirements: Only contractually capable, natural persons are allowed to register as member. Persons under the age of 18 are not permitted to participate in any CouchTycoon service. In order to comply with youth protection regulations, CouchTycoon reserves the right to execute a verification of age. Employees and staff members of CouchTycoon and their associate companies are not eligible to participate in projects especially in trading shares of any project offered on CouchTycoon. They may, however, participate for testing purposes, but without the intention of achieving any personal gain, or gain for CouchTycoon. 	
3.1.3. Data Entry: The personal information that CouchTycoon requests upon registration or at any further step is to be fully and accurately completed, including a valid E-mail address, username, password, first and last name, date of birth, address, bank information (when applicable), mobile phone number and ideally home telephone number, as well as data from your ID or Passport (when applicable). No user is entitled to a particular password or username. Age verification can be automatically carried out upon completion of registration based on the information entered. In cases where the user is referred to CouchTycoon by a media partner (such as, but not limited to, banners, editorial integration, or any other form of integration on internet portals, gaming websites, or other media partners), then CouchTycoon shall be authorized to pass the user's personal information onto that particular media partner. CouchTycoon reserves the right to terminate users from the CouchTycoon website at any time, as well as to deny their request to withdraw funds if the personal information that they have entered is deemed to be false. 	
3.1.4. Password: For security reasons, your password must be different than your username, and can be changed whenever the user deems necessary.

Passwords should not be rows of consecutive numbers (i.e."2345678") or letters (i.e.: "ABCDEFG"). Moreover, a secure password should contain a combination of numbers, letters, and special characters if possible. Passwords should be kept secret and periodically changed (every 2 months at the latest).

If a third party gains access to the account of a user who is in violation of these security guidelines and trades shares, makes cash-outs, aims to receive a project financing or withdraws funds, then the user shall bear any and all expenses incurred. CouchTycoon will not give your password to any third parties unless we are required by law to do so. CouchTycoon will never ask members for their passwords via telephone or E-mail. CouchTycoon can only use the password request form on the login page to request a password. 	
3.1.5. Multiple Registrations: Multiple registrations, as well as the setting up and operation of multiple accounts at CouchTycoon are prohibited. Member accounts are nontransferable. CouchTycoon reserves the right to review the validity of submitted member information. 	
3.1.6. Modifying Personal Information: If your personal information changes after registration, then you are obligated to immediately update your information or notify CouchTycoon in some way, such as via the Contact-Form. 	

	3.2. MEMBER ACCOUNTS 	
3.2.1. Member Account: CouchTycoon maintains a member account with virtual money. It is opened free of charge the moment that CouchTycoon has received payment through converting real money to CouchChips and the user has completed registration. CouchTycoon manages members' winnings and losses on this non-interest bearing member account. Deposited funds can be used exclusively to swap CouchChips with shares at CouchTycoon. Deposited funds can be withdrawn in accordance with sections 3.2.2. through 3.2.6. 	
3.2.2. Withdrawal: Members shall be granted the right to withdraw their account balance, or any portion of it, at any time as long as the amount to be withdrawn is at least 10 USD/120 CouchChips.

The requested withdrawal amount is credited to the member´s PayPal account specified by the member at registration, thus discharging CouchTycoon's corresponding debt. CouchTycoon is not obligated to verify the authorization of the account holder. The withdrawal shall be carried out at the earliest 24 hours after the request is processed. Bonuses, and other specialty payment methods that CouchTycoon may provide in future cannot be withdrawn. 	
3.2.3. Accumulated CouchChips: If the total amount of winnings accumulated on a member account exceeds the sum of 1000 USD/12000 CouchChips, then CouchTycoon can immediately transfer the funds that are over this limit onto one of the PayPal/bank account specified by the member upon registration. These funds shall be transferred in full satisfaction of this debt. CouchTycoon reserves the right to raise or lower this limit at any time and without giving a reason. The withdrawal is carried out in accordance with the conditions listed in section 3.2.5. 	
3.2.4. Proof of Identity: For security reasons, CouchTycoon shall be authorized to delay the withdrawal of funds until proof of identity can be confirmed. In cases such as these, the user shall be obligated to send a copy his personal ID or passport, along with a written request to withdraw the funds. 	
3.2.5. Withdrawals over 500 Euros: For security reasons, withdrawals in the amount of 500 USD/6000 CouchChips or more shall only be transferred after we have received a copy of the requesting user's personal ID along with his PayPal/bank information in written form. In cases such as these, the date of birth must match that which was submitted upon registration. 	
3.2.6. Deletion of Member Accounts: Member accounts may be deleted without any notification of reason and with our sole discretion once a period of 2 years has passed since the last login. The CouchTycoon service agreement shall be severed along with the deletion of the account. The member will be notified via e-mail at least three times before the account is deleted. If the member replies with his PayPal/bank account information that does not deviate from what was previously submitted, then the funds on the account in question, if any, will be transferred to the last PayPal/bank account that was registered to that member's account. If a withdrawal is not possible, then CouchTycoon shall deposit the funds onto a non-interest bearing collective account where they shall remain for a period of three years. The entitlement to a withdrawal shall become invalid after three years. 	

	3.3. ENTRY FEES AND WINNINGS 	
3.3.1. Entry Fees: Upon participating in a particular "project" through buying shares from, the member simultaneously and irrevocably authorizes CouchTycoon to deduct the fixed entry fee (CouchChips amount) that is declared upon purchasing particular shares from his member account. Furthermore, CouchTycoon is also given authorization to pay out the CouchChips to the member who sold shares. The entry fee is due upon participation. The entry fee is virtual money (CouchChips) that has to be "bought" with real money first.  Entry fees vary and are chosen by a share´s seller. Upon beginning a trade, the entry fee is deducted from the particular member's account. If sufficient funds are not available, then the member cannot take place in the particular trade. 	
3.3.2. Winnings: The possible winnings or losses of trades with shares solely depend on the prices members are trading particular shares on the marketplace. The sum of the possible winnings and losses are dependant upon the prices of shares traded on the marketplace, sum of participants and their frequency of participation. 	
3.3.3. Canceling a Trade: If a member causes a transaction/trade to be cancelled, whether on purpose or due to technical problems that cannot be attributed to CouchTycoon, then only the score that was last transmitted to CouchTycoon will be counted. 	

	3.4. PAYMENT AND FEES 	
3.4.1. Depositing Funds: Funds that shall be made available to a particular member account are to be deposited via PayPal transfer onto the PayPal/bank account specified by CouchTycoon. The minimum amount of any transactio to convert USD to CouchChips and vice versa is 10 USD (120 CouchChips). The particular member can only participate in trades and transactions once the funds have been received. CouchTycoon is revocably authorized, but not obligated, to accept payments via credit card, Direct Debit, and other forms of non-cash payment and to allow the particular member to participate in trades and transactions before the funds have been received. Along with payment, the player is submitting a collateral security deposit via the depositing of funds (§§ 232f BGB), of which CouchTycoon has a right to a commission (§§ 675 BGB), reimbursement of expenses (§ 670 BGB), and compensation for damages. 	
3.4.2. Payment via Direct Debit: Along with each Direct Debit that is set up, the user authorizes CouchTycoon to deduct the specified funds from the submitted bank account. The user irrevocably agrees that CouchTycoon may inform the user's financial institution (or any agency that is commissioned by CouchTycoon to collect any outstanding funds) of the user's complete name, date of birth, and address if the user's direct debit cannot be honored. Furthermore, the user agrees that his financial institution (or any agency that is commissioned by CouchTycoon to collect any outstanding funds) may be transferred CouchTycoon's information, which may also be saved for the purpose of processing the Direct Debit until the claim has been met. 	
3.4.3. Status of Payment: Funds are considered to have been debited once they have been irrevocably credited to the CouchTycoon PayPal/ bank account and deducted from the member's account. To activate funds, the member has to confirm his PayPal/bank transactions within nine days. 	
3.4.4. Reason of Transfer: The note to payee in the PayPal/bank transfer form should include only the reason of transfer specified by CouchTycoon. Any additional information will be considered invalid. The transferred funds will be credited to the appropriate member account immediately after they have been credited to the CouchTycoon collective PayPal/bank account. 	
3.4.5. Additional Charges for Monetary Transactions: If a member incurs any additional charges for a monetary transaction, especially in the case of a denied payment (such as denied transfer, denied credit card payment) or due to increased bank processing fees for transfers from foreign countries or into foreign countries (i.e.: withdrawal of winnings or account balance), then CouchTycoon is authorized to deduct these fees from the member account. CouchTycoon is allowed to charge a fee of 12.00 USD per denied payment and 3.50 USD for each reminder of payment. The assertion of any further damages, namely those for the compensation of third party processing of the denied payment (such as collection agency and attorney costs) is always reserved. The member agrees to assume all costs that may be attributed to him when funds credited to his account (such as cancellation of a direct debit, insufficient funds, of incorrectly submitted account information) are reversed. Furthermore, in cases such as this CouchTycoon is authorized to organize a collection agency in order to collect the outstanding bills, also including any that are incurred through the hiring of the collection agency. 	
3.4.6. Credit Report Review: CouchTycoon reserves the right to appropriately review a member's credit report upon payment, and thus transmit the collected personal information (name, address, date of birth, amount to be deposited, including processing fees) to the credit angencies such as InfoScore Consumer Data GmbH, Rheinstr. 99, 76532 Baden-Baden, Germany, SCHUFA Holding AG, Branch Office Berlin, Mariendorfer Damm 1-3, 12099 Berlin, Germany, and/or Informa Unternehmensberatung GmbH, Freiburger Str. 7, 75179 Pforzheim, Germany, who may save the information in order to review the member's credit report based on statistical methods. CouchTycoon reserves the right to individually or generally limit the maximum entry fee (including processing fee) per trade, transaction and/or per day. 	
3.4.7. CouchTycoon Fees: Generally member accounts are free.
 CouchTycoon reserves the right to introduce any fees in future such as trading fees, account fees or any other fee. Members will be notified if such a fee would be introduced.

Special fees for entrepreneurs are payable after an Initial Couch Offering (ICO) of their project will have completed successfully. These fees are:
 5 % of the net USD amount raised as trading/listing fee and
 5 % of the net USD amount raised as issuing fee.
 CouchTycoon will deduct both from the total raised amount through the ICO.
 	
3.4.8. Use of Funds on Account: The funds on a particular member's account are directly used to offset costs or profits caused by that user's winnings, entry fees and processing fees. 
	
	3.5. FUNDAMENTAL RULES OF USE AND THE INTERDICTION OF ABUSE 	
3.5.1. Abuse: Abusive behavior on CouchTycoon is prohibited. Abuse behavior includes, but is not limited to: 
* purposely entering faulty, misleading, incorrect, or incomplete information; 
* opening multiple member accounts or opening member accounts without proper authorization; 
* committing, or attempting to commit fraud, especially through the use of mechanisms, software, or any script in association with the CouchTycoon website that is intended to interrupt the functioning of the website, help a user achieve better results than could be achieved through the sole use of a mouse/keyboard, help the user to achieve a score that is not possible by following the game controls described by CouchTycoon, or negatively influence another member's game/trade controls; 
* purposely causing an interruption or error in order to influence a transaction, such as to cause the transaction to prematurely end; 
* achieving or attempting to achieve an advantage over other members through unfair behavior of any kind, such as through deception, which could damage or endanger a fair competition; 
* cooperating with other members in a way that could create an advantage over novice users and thus diminish their opportunity for fair play and reduce their chances of winning. 
* breaking any further rules or duties that are detailed in the general terms and conditions. 
	3.5.2. Rules for Communication: It is possible for members to contact each other, for reasons such as informing each other to a project´s issue. In doing so, they are obligated to only send messages that: 
* are free of obvious or hidden advertisement; 
* are neither subjective, intentionally false, derogatory, libellous, defamatory, immoral, nor pornographic in nature nor fulfill any other element of offense; 
* are not damaging to any third parties; 
* do not contain any viruses or computer programs that could affect the function of external computers; 
* are not surveys or chain letters; 
* were not written with the intent to expand a certain political, ideological, or religious denomination; 
* were not written with the intent to collect, save, or use personal information from users without their explicit consent, especially for promotional purposes; 
	3.5.3. Measures against Abuse: CouchTycoon reserves the right to terminate user agreement contracts without notice, cancel trades or any transactions that have already begun, deactivate member accounts and/or members, and withhold member account balances in cases of abusive behavior. The respective member is also obligated to compensate any resulting expenses to CouchTycoon. 	

	3.6. SEVERANCE AND TERMINATION 	
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3.6.1. MEMBER'S RIGHT TO SEVERANCE: A member can terminate his user license agreement within two weeks of submitting his declaration of intent, which is found at the and of the user license agreement. All that is required to terminate this user license agreement is a written announcement sent to PIPELINE ventures GmbH, Tarpenbekstr. 61, 20251 Hambur GERMANY, or an e-mail to contact@couchtycoon.net. Timely dispatch of the termination shall suffice for compliance with the time limit. The termination is not required to contain any explanatory statement. If the user license agreement is terminated within the aforementioned time limit, then the member shall no longer be bound to it. This right to termination expires the moment that the member participates in a trade with a cash (CouchChips) entry fee on the CouchTycoon website. 	

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3.6.2. MEMBER'S RIGHT TO TERMINATION: A member can terminate his user license agreement at any time during the course of participation. All that is required to terminate this user license agreement is a written announcement sent to PIPELINE ventures GmbH, Tarpenbekstr. 61, 20251 Hambur GERMANY, or an e-mail to contact@couchtycoon.net. The remaining funds on the member's account will be transferred to his PayPal/bank account within a processing period of up to 30 workdays. If his PayPal/bank information is unknown, then the general conditions under section 3.2.6. of these terms and conditions will be exercised. In accordance with section 3.2.2., withdrawals can only be executed when their sum is the value of 10 USD/120 CouchChips or more. If the user's player account contains less than 10 USD/120 CouchChips of funds, then they can be forfeited without substitution upon termination. 	
3.6.3. CouchTycoon's Right to Termination: Under normal circumstances, CouchTycoon shall reserve the right to terminate a user's license agreement after a time period of two weeks before the end of the current month. In lieu of this, CouchTycoon's right to terminate users as well as to deactivate their accounts for substantial reasons shall not be affected. 	

	3.7. LIABILITY AND CORRECTIVE ACTION FOR TRADES AND TRANSACTIONS 	
3.7.1. Limitation of Liability: CouchTycoon is not liable for loss, damage, or injury caused by access, use, or attempted access or use of the site. CouchTycoon is also not liable for any loss, damage or injury caused by downloading any data from CouchTycoon, or information obtained in any other way from CouchTycoon. CouchTycoon is only liable insofar that CouchTycoon, its vicarious agents and/or legal representatives have acted with wantonly negligent or purposeful breach of duty and as long as no material contractual obligations have been violated by CouchTycoon, its vicarious agents and/or legal representatives. 	
3.7.2. Errors: CouchTycoon is not liable for errors in data entry, transmission, and/or scores, as CouchTycoon has no influence over these problems. 	
3.7.3. Erroneous Data Entry: CouchTycoon reserves the right to retroactively amend obvious errors in the specification of entry fees, prices, quotes, etc. 	
3.7.4. Abuse: CouchTycoon is not liable for any damages of any kind that are caused due to a member's misuse of CouchTycoon services, which include all resulting losses to any third parties. 	
3.7.5. Premature Closing: If CouchTycoon is forced to close an issuing of any project or trades prematurely, then the participating members can have their entry fees refunded and credited to their member accounts. CouchTycoon is not liable for any collateral or consequential damages. 	
3.7.6. Winnings: CouchTycoon is not liable for lost winnings or potential winnings, not even in the case of prematurely closed trades or issuings. 	
3.7.7. Shares: All shares, portfoliocards or how ever a virtual stake of a project may be called are virtual. No member has a claim on any real share or stake of the real property the virtual property/share/stake is based on. Purchasing a virtual share of any project on CouchTycoon DOES NOT also mean the purchase of a real right or share.
 	
	3.8. AMENDMENTS OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS; AMANDEMENT OF OPERATING COMPANY 	
3.8.1. Amendments: All declarations that are conducted within the context of the CouchTycoon license agreement must be made in written form or via E-mail. The CouchTycoon e-mail address is contact@couchtycoon.net. 	
3.8.2. Terms and Conditions Revisions: CouchTycoon reserves the right to revise these terms and conditions at any time and without providing any reason. CouchTycoon shall send an email containing the revised terms and conditions, or a notification containing a link to where they can be viewed on the CouchTycoon website two weeks before they come into effect. If a player does not expressly object to the validity of the new terms and conditions via e-mail within these two weeks, then the newly revised terms and conditions will be considered agreed upon. If the player rejects the newly revised terms and conditions, then CouchTycoon can terminate his license agreement in accordance with 3.6.3. 	
3.8.3.PIPELINE ventures GmbH or its owners will found a legal entity for running CouchTycoon at a later date, the contractual relationship will be transfered to this new operating company. By accepting Terms and Conditions members also accept the transfer of theire account and contract to the new operating company even if this results in a change of place of jurisdiction and/or legislation.	

	3.9. SEVERABILITY CLAUSE 	
If any section of these terms and agreements is deemed invalid, then the remaining sections and agreements will remain valid and enforceable. If this is the case, the most similar provision possible shall be added at our economic convenience, which shall make the illegal, invalid, or unenforceable provisions legal, valid and enforceable. 	

	3.10. APPLICABLE LAW 	
These terms and conditions shall be covered by the laws governing the Federal Republic of Germany, Hamburg is the place of jurisdiction. 	
If you have any complaints or objections to these terms and conditions, then please contact us at PIPELINE ventures GmbH, Tarpenbekstr. 61, 20251 Hamburg or send us an E-mail at contact@couchtycoon.net . 	
Hamburg 2007 - CouchTycoon 2007- Terms and Conditions September/01/2007.