Sound Alerts Terms of Service

1. General Terms

1. These General Terms of Use (hereinafter referred to as “Terms”) apply to the services provided via the Sound Alerts website www.soundalerts.com (hereinafter referred to as “Services”) by LayerApps GmbH, Kölner Str. 339, 47807 Krefeld, Germany (hereinafter referred to as “Sound Alerts”), to its end users (Sound Alerts and its end users hereinafter collectively referred to as “Parties”).
2. The Services are primarily aimed at streamers and content creators (hereinafter referred to as “Streamers” and each a “Streamer”) on the Twitch.tv platform (hereinafter referred to as “Twitch”) who operate a channel on the platform as Twitch Affiliates or Twitch Partners, and who use the Services to enable their viewers to interact with the stream. The Services are thus aimed at entrepreneurs as specified in § 14 of the Civil Code of Germany (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB) who are generating revenue with their channel on Twitch.
3. These Terms conclusively apply to the legal relationship between Sound Alerts and the Streamer. Deviating and/or conflicting terms and conditions of the Streamer do not apply unless Sound Alerts has expressly confirmed this in writing. Individual agreements between Sound Alerts and the Streamer have priority over these Terms.
4. The contractual language is English. The contractual relations between the Parties are subject to the law of the Federal Republic of Germany.

2. Scope of Services

1. The Sound Alerts Services allow Streamers to implement and use an interactive tool to enable livestream alerts for Bits, Channel Points, a multitude of other alert types, as well as the Sound Alerts Twitch Extension. To use the Services the Streamer must register an account with Sound Alerts. To use the full spectrum of Services, they also need to implement the Sound Alerts Twitch Extension (hereinafter referred to as “Extension”) to their own channel on Twitch via the Twitch Extension Store on the creator dashboard of Twitch.
2. To use the Services an account and a channel on Twitch.tv are required. The operation of the Streamer’s channel is subject to separate terms and conditions of Twitch Interactive, Inc. Sound Alerts has no influence on the availability of the Twitch platform or the terms of use of said platform.
3. After registering an account with Sound Alerts and setting up the Sound Alerts browser source, the Streamer can create Alerts via the SoundAlerts dashboard (hereinafter referred to as “Dashboard”) for certain events such as new followers, subscriptions, resubscriptions, subscription gifts, channel raids, cheers and hype trains happening on their Twitch channel. Furthermore, the Streamer can set up additional events to be triggered via Bits or Channel Points.
4. The Streamer can configure alerts via the Dashboard for their individual needs specifying the events and media to be played on the stream such as audio files or clips taken from videos on Twitch or YouTube, the Sound Alerts Overlay templates as well as optional GIFs (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Streamer Media”). When triggered by the viewers of a Streamer’s Twitch channel, these Alert Events will be shown directly in the Streamer’s broadcast via an overlay. 1. GIFs provided via Sound Alerts are fetched via the services of https://tenor.com/—these can be used as Overlays for certain Alert Events. Sound Alerts has no influence on the availability of the services provided via https://tenor.com, the content provided via this service or terms of use thereof.
5. Sound Alerts hosts a community Media library which consists of sounds provided by the Streamers using Sound Alerts. The Streamer may upload custom Streamer Media to the Sound Alerts community Media library to be used in Alert Events created by the Streamer and/or use Streamer Media shared by other streamers. The Streamer may choose to share their uploaded Streamer Media with the Sound Alerts community for other Streamers to use the uploaded Streamer Media in their Alerts Events. Before uploading any Streamer Media to the community Media library and/or sharing any Streamer Media with others, the Streamer must ensure and warrant that such usage does not infringe any third party rights.
6. After implementation of the Extension and its setup within the Dashboard, viewers of a Streamer’s channel stream can use the Sound Alerts Extension to trigger preselected sounds, animations, and videos to interact with the Streamer and the viewing community.
7. If a Streamer is a Twitch Affiliate or Partner, they may specify a custom amount of Bits or Channel Points associated with a certain Alert Event as a requirement for the playout. Bits and Channel Points are acquired via the Twitch.tv platform separately according to the respective terms and conditions of Twitch.tv. Sound Alerts has no control or influence over the acquisition or usage of Bits and/or Channel Points on Twitch.
8. Sound Alerts is not involved in interactions and/or transactions between the Streamer and their viewers such as subscriptions, donations and any usage of Bits and/or Channel Points. These actions are performed directly between the Streamer and their viewers according to the respective terms and conditions of Twitch and, especially regarding donations, any respective third-party service used by the Streamer. Sound Alerts, therefore, has no control or influence over these interactions and is in particular not able to initiate and/or perform any refunds of Bits and/or Channel Points. If an Alert Event was not triggered due to technical issues or other reasons where Sound Alerts is at fault, viewers can apply for a restore token here: https://support.soundalerts.com/restore. After verification by Sound Alerts, we will provide a token to be used as a voucher for another Alert Event of the same value on the same channel.

3. Registration, Fees

1. A prior registration is required to use the Services as a Streamer. Registration to use the Services is free of charge. To use the Services as a Streamer, regardless of whether the Streamer is a Twitch Affiliate or Partner or still growing their channel to achieve this status, the Streamer must be of legal age. Streamers who have not reached the legal age require the consent of their legal guardian(s). Sound Alerts reserves the right to request proof of age and to restrict access to and usage of our Services if the requested proof of age is not provided or not provided in full within a reasonable period of time.
2. During the registration process, Streamers must accept these Terms and will be forwarded to Twitch.tv to login to their separate Twitch.tv account via an API provided by Twitch. After entering their Twitch.tv login data, the Streamer will be prompted to link their Twitch.tv account to Sound Alerts and authorize a connection between both services. This authorization is required for Sound Alerts to identify certain events on the Streamer’s channel to play an associated Alert Event as configured by the Streamer. After completing the authorization process, the Streamer will be redirected to the Sound Alerts Dashboard.
3. By completing registration, the Streamer enters a contractual relationship with Sound Alerts based on these Terms for using the Services. The text of the contract is not saved by Sound Alerts. The Terms can be viewed at any time on the Sound Alerts website under https://soundalerts.com/terms.
4. The Streamer’s account with Sound Alerts and the contract between the Parties are not transferable. Streamers are not permitted to create more than one account. At the time of registration, no Streamer shall purport to be another person and no Streamer shall register under another person’s Twitch account without authorization by the account owner.
5. After completing the registration process, the Streamer can specify a supported streaming software, such as OBS Studio or XSplit Broadcaster, by following the setup process in the Dashboard. Sound Alerts will provide a browser source for the overlay to be used in the Streamer’s scenes for a playout of the Alert Events.
6. Using the Dashboard, the Streamer may invite channel moderators, team members or other individuals trusted by the Streamer to manage the sounds, alerts and overlays. The Streamer may appoint managers with different roles and responsibilities such as Editors or Admins. The Streamer is responsible for any actions by their appointed managers in the same way that they would be themselves.
7. While registration for the Services is free of charge, Sound Alerts as the developer of the Extension receives a partial amount of the monetary countervalue of Bits used by the viewer to play out an Alert Event as specified by the Streamer. Such a split is performed via Twitch according to the respective terms and conditions of Twitch.tv to which Sound Alerts has no influence or control over.

4. Responsibility for Login Data

1. When registering for the Services using the Twitch API as per above section 3.2, Sound Alerts does not receive login data of the Streamer to their respective account with Twitch.tv.
2. Streamers shall keep their login data, including their username and password for their Twitch account, secret and shall not make their login data available to unauthorized third parties. Streamers are responsible for ensuring that their access to the Services is used exclusively by them and/or persons explicitly authorized by the Streamer.
3. Streamers are obliged to inform Sound Alerts without undue delay if there are indications that their Twitch account used to access the Services has been misused. Streamers are generally responsible for all activities carried out using their linked Twitch account to access the Services.
4. If and when registration and/or profile data changes over the term of the contract, the Streamer shall adjust the respective data promptly in the Dashboard.

5. Sound Alerts media content, Uploads of Streamer Media, Warranty for uploads

1. The content available in the Sound Alerts media library is provided in part by Sound Alerts but mostly by Streamers as Streamer Media which they have uploaded to our media library and shared with the community. Sound Alerts does not undertake any review of the content uploaded as Streamer Media and therefore neither guarantees nor assumes responsibility to the accuracy, appropriateness, quality, correctness, completeness, reliability, authenticity as well as freedom from third-party infringements of the respective Streamer Media uploaded and shared by the Streamer. Nevertheless, Sound Alerts reserves the right to reject, correct or delete any uploaded content and at its own free discretion to remove illegal content immediately.
2. When uploading Streamer Media to our media library, the Streamer represents and warrants that they have all necessary rights, power and authority for uploading, sharing and using any uploaded Streamer Media as well as to grant Sound Alerts the rights to the uploaded Streamer Media to be used in accordance to these Terms, including but without limitation, the right of reproduction, the right of rendering to the public and the right to broadcast. The Streamer further represents and warrants that these rights have not already been otherwise disposed of in a manner that could impair the granting of the rights to Sound Alerts in accordance to section 6 below.
3. The Streamer must not upload any media content which is in violation of any applicable laws including, but not limited to, third-party copyrights, trademark rights and/or personal rights.
4. Before uploading any media content to the Sound Alerts media library, the Streamer must ensure its right, power and authority to upload Streamer Media as the original creator thereof or being otherwise entitled (e.g., with effective consent of the owner of exclusive rights) to upload the content and to grant usage and exploitation rights as outlined above.
5. Sound Alerts reserves the right to reject Streamer Media content from being uploaded and/or to edit, block or delete existing content if and when the uploaded content is in a breach of these Terms.
6. If we remove Streamer Media in response to a copyright or trademark notice, we will notify the Streamer via email. If the Streamer believes that a respective Streamer Media was wrongly removed, they must reply to the notification without undue delay and justify why they believe that they are entitled to use the respective content. Sound Alerts will forward Streamer’s statement to the person or entity which filed the complaint and will decide on the appeal without undue delay.
7. Sound Alerts shall provide an Abuse button to report content which is in breach of these Terms. Streamers or any third party wishing to contact Sound Alerts without using the Abuse button can write to report@soundalerts.com.

6. Use of YouTube API Services

1. Our Video Share Alerts feature uses the YouTube API Services.
2. The Video Share Alerts feature allows Sound Alerts users to submit a YouTube video to the content creator’s (Streamer’s) alert queue which will be played in a YouTube embed player upon content creator’s approval.
3. By using Video Share Alerts, you agree to the YouTube's Terms of Service ( https://www.youtube.com/t/terms ) and Google's Privacy Policy ( http://www.google.com/policies/privacy ).

7. Mutual Grant of Rights

1. During the term of our contractual relationship under these Terms, Sound Alerts grants the Streamer a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, non-transferable and non-sublicensable right to access and use the Services and its functions as necessary within the scope of the Services as stipulated by these Terms. The Streamer is not permitted to analyze, decompile, copy and/or modify the functionalities and/or the source code of the Services.
2. During the term of our contractual relationship under these Terms, Sound Alerts grants the Streamer a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, non-transferable, and non-sublicensable right to use any media content provided by Sound Alerts in the media library to be used within the Services as necessary within the scope of the Services as stipulated by these Terms. The granting of rights is limited to the duration and the term of the contractual relationship and ends with termination of this contract.
3. Unless any extended use is permitted expressly under these Terms or by an individual agreement of the Parties, 1. Streamers must not copy, modify, adapt, prepare derivative work or distribute media provided by Sound Alerts outside the Services, and 2. Streamers must not commercially exploit any media provided by Sound Alerts outside the Services, including a commercial usage outside of Twitch, and 3. Streamers must not delete and/or modify any copyright notices, logos, or other identifiers or proprietary notices.
4. When uploading Streamer Media to our media library, the Streamer grants Sound Alerts a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable and sublicensable right to use and commercially exploit uploaded Streamer Media in accordance to these terms, including, but not limited to copy, store, perform, display and distribute Streamer Media within the Services. This license in particular includes (i) the right to include uploaded Streamer Media in our media library database as well as to remove the respective media from the database and/or the Services, (ii) the right for Sound Alerts to make uploaded Streamer Media available to other Streamers and their viewers within the Services to be used in accordance to these Terms, (iii) the right of Sound Alerts to grant other Streamers the right to render Streamer Media to the public and (iv) the sublicensable right for commercial exploitation of uploaded Streamer Media within the scope of the Services.
5. When uploading Streamer Media to our media library without sharing the content with the community, the grant of rights to Sound Alerts as per above section 6.4 is limited to the respect that Sound Alerts may not make such Streamer Media available to the community for use within the Services. The grant of rights is extended as per above section 6.4 if the Streamer shares their respective Streamer Media content with the community after uploading.
6. If the Streamer previously uploaded Streamer Media to our media library and shared it with the community, the Streamer may decide to unshare such content. In this case, a previous license granted to Sound Alerts remains unaffected and a limitation as per above section 6.5 comes to effect upon making such a restriction. A sublicense granted by Sound Alerts to other Streamers to use the respective, previously shared Streamer Media remains unaffected.

8. Reporting infringements of rights

1. Sound Alerts respects the rights of any third party, especially intellectual property rights, and is accordingly interested in preventing the usage and distribution of infringing content uploaded by the Streamers to the Sound Alerts media library.
2. If you believe that Streamer Media content uploaded to the Sound Alerts media library violates your rights (e.g. the right to one's own image, rights to a name, trademark and/or copyrights), please contact us stating which Streamer Media content is violating your rights and provide reasons for your complaint.
3. Sound Alerts will immediately investigate all notifications of rights violations and take the appropriate legal action, especially a restriction of disputed content for further use.
4. Notifications of infringement may be addressed to our postal address as per section 1.1 or via email to report@soundalerts.com.

9. Prohibited Actions

1. The Streamer may not upload and/or share any Streamer Media to our media library which 1. is copyrighted if the Streamer has no authorization to use and commercially exploit such content, especially copyrighted music and/or sounds; 2. is violating the rights of a person, e.g. because the person depicted has not consented to the use of their or her image and/or voice in a sound file; 3. is containing false statement of facts; 4. is hateful, racist, xenophobic, discriminatory, defamatory or offends common decency; 5. is inciting hatred against parts of the population (incitement of the people, “Volksverhetzung”) or is propaganda for an anti-constitutional organization, 6. is pornographic or otherwise sexual content, especially sexual abuse, abuse and nudity of minors; 7. is depicting physician and/or mental violence or a glorification of criminal acts; 8. is a glorification of drugs or other illegal substances; 9. is containing personal information about a particular individual and/or an organization (doxxing).
2. The Streamer must not 1. harass other community members, incite and/or promote such harassment; 2. gain access or attempt to gain access to another user’s account and/or any non-public portions of the Service, including the computer systems or networks connected to or used together with the Services; 3. repeatedly uploading identical content or content with only minor changes; 4. re-uploading other community members content; 5. upload any viruses or malicious code or do anything that could interrupt, overburden, or impair the proper working or appearance of the Services.

10. Restriction and blocking of access to the Services

1. Sound Alerts reserves the right to partially restrict the access to the Services or usage of certain functionalities such as uploading and sharing Streamer Media in the event of serious violations of these Terms by the Streamers. In case of a restriction, Sound Alerts will notify the user via email, stating the restriction, the reasons and the duration of the restriction. The right to restrict exists independently of the right of termination or blocking and can be exercised in addition to the latter.
2. The following actions shall be deemed as a serious violation as per section 9.1 if the Streamer 1. has registered for the Services and/or is using the Services without being eligible; 2. deliberately makes false statements when registering to use the Services; 3. uploads and/or shares Streamer Media in violation of copyright, trademark or personal rights; 4. uploads/and or shares Streamer Media in violation of the provisions of applicable data protection law, especially under GDPR; 5. does not react to a copyright and/or trademark notice without undue delay according to above section 5.6; 6. uploads and/or shares Streamer Media in violation of above section 8.1; 7. performs actions in violation of above section 8.2.
3. When restricting access to the Services or usage of functionalities of the Services, Sound Alerts shall take the Streamer’s legitimate interests into reasonable consideration. The Streamer may appeal a restriction by contacting Sound Alerts per email via report@soundalerts.com.
4. If the Streamer is repeatedly violating these Terms and/or applicable law despite a previous restriction as per above section 9.1, Sound Alerts reserves the right to block the Streamers’ access to and their usage of the Services permanently. The Streamer will be informed about a permanent block via email and when accessing the Services.
5. If the Streamer is blocked from accessing and using the Services permanently, the access cannot be reactivated. In this case, the Streamer must not register for the Services using the same or a different Twitch account or by other means circumventing the blocking.

11. Modifications to Services, Changes to these Terms

1. Sound Alerts reserves the right to change, amend and/or modify the Services partly or in full in accordance to the internal development cycle, especially to introduce new functionalities to the Services. In doing so, Sound Alerts shall take the legitimate interests of the Streamer into consideration if previously available functionalities are discontinued.
2. Sound Alerts further reserves the right to discontinue the Services in full. A discontinuation of the Services in full shall be regarded as a termination according to Section 13 below.
3. Sound Alerts reserves the right to change or supplement these Terms (hereinafter collectively referred to as "Change") in consideration of the legitimate interests of the Streamer, for example if functionalities of the Services change or where a Change is necessary in the interest of a simpler and/or safer handling of the Services and/or to prevent misuse. A Change may furthermore become necessary as a result of changes in the applicable law or a change in jurisdiction.
4. Sound Alerts shall notify the Streamer of the Changes to the Terms by notification in text form (email is sufficient) at least 6 weeks in advance and specify when the adjusted Terms are to come into effect. The Streamer will be asked to agree to the adjusted Terms when they access the Services for the first time after the adjusted Terms come into effect. When the modified Terms come into effect, they shall apply to the ongoing relationship of the Parties in the updated form.
5. If the Streamer does not agree to the adjusted Terms, this shall be deemed a termination of the contractual relationship based on the previous Terms in accordance to the regulation established by Section 13 below. Sound Alerts shall separately point out the legal consequences of the agreement or disagreement to the adjusted Terms in the notification of change.

12. Limitation of Liability

1. Regardless of the legal reason, Sound Alerts shall only be liable for damages in the event of intent and gross negligence, including intent and gross negligence on the part of legal representatives, employees and other vicarious agents (“Erfüllungsgehilfen”) of Sound Alerts.
2. In the event of a breach of a material contractual obligation, where the fulfillment of such obligation is a prerequisite for the proper performance of the legal relationship established by these Terms, its violation jeopardizes the purpose of these Terms and where the Streamer as a contractual partner may reasonably rely on a due performance of such obligation (cardinal obligations, “Kardinalspflichten”), the liability for simple negligence shall be limited to the amount of the damage foreseeable and typically to be expected at the time of the conclusion of the contract. This limitation of liability also applies to the personal liability of the legal representatives, employees or other vicarious agents (“Erfüllungsgehilfen”) of Sound Alerts.
3. The above limitations of liability shall not apply in the event of injury to life, limb and health of a person, in the event of fraudulent intent and in the absence of a warranted characteristic or an explicit assumption of warranty. Liability in accordance with the German Product Liability Act (“Produkthaftungsgesetz”) shall also remain unaffected.

13. Personal Data, Newsletter

1. Sound Alerts shall process personal data provided by the Streamer in accordance with applicable data protection laws. Personal data provided by the Streamer will be used without the Streamer’s separate consent for the purpose of fulfilling and processing the contractual relationship for the provision of the Services under these Terms.
2. In individual cases, Sound Alerts may process personal data if there is a legitimate interest, whereby in these cases we primarily consider the legitimate interests of the user. In these cases, when we are processing personal data on the basis of a legitimate interest, the Streamer has the right to object.
3. Personal data will not be disclosed to third parties without the Streamer's consent, unless Sound Alerts is required or authorized to do so by law, for example to enforce claims arising from the usage of the Services.
4. At no point we will sell your personal data to a third party.
5. We may use the email address provided to us during the registration process to periodically inform you of new features, updates as well as further news and events in relation to Sound Alerts. The Streamer or any other recipient of our newsletter may unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time without providing a reason or without incurring any costs other than transmission costs according to base rates (“Basistarife”) if applicable with your respective provider or carrier.
6. Details regarding collected data, its use, and the rights of data subjects are set forth in our Privacy Policy.

14. Term, Termination of Use

1. The contractual relationship between Sound Alerts and the Streamer under these Terms shall run for an unlimited period of time until terminated by either Party.
2. Streamer may duly terminate the contract with effect for the future at any time by deleting their account with Sound Alerts via the Dashboard. Sound Alerts may duly terminate the contract with effect for the future by closing the Streamer’s account but shall observe a notice period of four (4) weeks. Sound Alerts will inform the Streamer about a termination in text form (email shall suffice).
3. The mutual right to extraordinary termination for good cause remains unaffected. Sound Alerts shall have the right to terminate the contract for good cause in particular if 1. the Services are fully discontinued in accordance to above section 10.2; 2. Streamer uses the Services for illegal behavior, in particular for criminal acts or preparatory acts for such; 3. Streamer uses or exploits bugs or other technical faults of the Services to cause unintended or unanticipated behavior, e.g. in relation to the sending of Alerts 4. Streamer repeatedly breaches these Terms and fails to remedy the breach or continues breaching these Terms of Use despite a notice from Sound Alerts; 5. Streamer repeatedly uploads copyrighted and/or trademark protected Streamer Media in violation of existing and applicable third-party rights. 6. as well as other behavior that is likely to endanger the interests of the protection of minors;
4. An extraordinary termination by Sound Alerts shall be without prejudice to further legal remedies including, but without limitation to, to damages and a compensation for losses.

15. Final Provisions

1. Where a German term within these Terms has been inserted in quotation marks and/or italics it shall be authoritative for the purpose of the interpretation of the relevant English term to which it relates.
2. If any provision of these Terms is or becomes void or ineffective in whole or in part, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.
3. In case where a provision becomes void or ineffective in whole or in part, the Parties shall be obliged to cooperate in the creation of provisions that comes as close as possible to the void or ineffective provision in legal and economic terms.
4. If any provisions of these Terms require interpretation or supplementation, such interpretation or supplementation shall be made in such a manner as to best reflect the spirit, content and purpose of these Terms. If these Terms contain a regulation gap (“Regelungslücke”), the preceding provisions of this section 14 shall apply mutatis mutandis.
5. We do not participate in any alternative dispute resolution schemes with a consumer arbitration panel and are not required to do so.
6. The place of jurisdiction is the registered office of Sound Alerts if the Streamer is an entrepreneur (§ 1 Handelsgesetzbuch, HGB), a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law. The same applies if a Streamer does not have a general place of jurisdiction in Germany or if the Streamer's place of residence or habitual residence is unknown at the time a legal action is brought.