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Terms of use

Wikirate International e.V.

 

In Deutsch

Status: May 2025

Wikirate should be as free to use as possible. Unfortunately, we also have to protect ourselves from all kinds of legal problems and, above all, legally exclude the misuse of Wikirate. Hence these extensive terms of use. Please read the following terms of use carefully. By using this website you agree to these terms of use.

 

§ 1 Use 

Wikirate.org is hosted by Wikirate International e.V. and exists thanks to a vibrant community of users like you who write, edit and curate content together. We welcome your participation in this community. We encourage you to be courteous and civil to other members of the community, to act in good faith, and to contribute content that furthers our vision and mission.

Our content is intended for general information purposes: Although we provide a great deal of information on professional topics, including medical, legal or financial issues, this content is for general information purposes only. It is not intended to provide professional advice. Please seek independent professional advice from a person authorised or qualified in the relevant field before acting on any information, opinion or advice contained on the Platform.

(1) Use of the Website requires prior registration by the User if he/she wishes to post his/her own content.

(2) Registration requires the selection of a profile name and a password. Profile names whose use infringes the rights of third parties, in particular trademark rights or rights to a name, are not permitted. Profile names that are illegal or offend common decency are also not permitted. The profile name is visible to all other users. All other information and personal data are only publicly visible if they have been authorised by the user or if the user voluntarily provides information marked as public.

(3) The creation of a user account on the Website (each a "User Account") is voluntary, but certain functions of the Services are only accessible after the creation and registration of a User Account. By creating a User Account, you represent and warrant that 

  1. you are at least sixteen (16) years of age; 
  2. that such User Account is and will remain your only User Account; 
  3. that you will keep your login details confidential and secure, 
  4. will not disclose them to any other person, and 
  5. will not allow or authorise any other person to use your User Account; 
  6. and that you are fully responsible and legally liable for all actions taken under your User Account.

If you create a user account on behalf of a legal entity, you represent and warrant that you are authorised by the relevant legal entity to create such an account and that the relevant legal entity agrees to be bound by these Terms of Use; 

  1. that the relevant legal entity has agreed to and is bound by these Terms of Use; 
  2. that the relevant user account is and will remain the only user account of the relevant legal entity; 
  3. and that such user account will be accessed and used solely by authorised employees of the relevant legal entity on behalf of and for the account of the relevant legal entity.

(4) Wikirate reserves the right to delete user accounts at its own discretion and without giving reasons. If Wikirate has deleted your user account, you are prohibited from creating a new user account without the prior written consent of Wikirate.

(5) Wikirate may contact you using the contact details you provided when creating your user account.

(6) Certain activities, whether legal or illegal, may harm other users and violate our rules. For your own protection and the protection of other users, you must not engage in such activities on our sites. These activities include 

  • harassment, threats, stalking, spamming, or vandalism; 
  • sending chain letters, junk mail, or spam to other users; 
  • invading the privacy of others; 
  • soliciting personal information for the purpose of harassment, exploitation, invasion of privacy, or for advertising or commercial purposes not expressly authorised by Wikirate International e.V; 
  • intentionally or knowingly impersonate another user or person, falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity, or fraudulently use another user's username; 
  • violate any copyright, trademark, patent or other proprietary right under any applicable law; 
  • use child pornography or other content that violates any applicable child pornography law; 
  • post or trade obscene material in violation of any applicable law; use the Services in any manner that violates any applicable law;
  • Posting or distributing content that contains viruses, malware, worms, Trojan horses, malicious code or other devices that may damage our technical infrastructure or system or that of our users; 
  • automated use of the website that is abusive or disruptive to the services and is not authorised by Wikirate; 
  • interfering with the services by imposing an unreasonable load on Wikirate or the networks or servers connected to Wikirate; 
  • exploring, scanning or testing the vulnerability of our technical systems or networks.

(7) Users are not permitted to publish content for the purpose of advertising companies, products or services in any part of the platform. This includes, but is not limited to, adding advertising content or links to external websites in user profiles. Content or links that are deemed to be promotional or commercial may be removed by the administrators of the platform in order to maintain a neutral, non-commercial space for open data and collaborative learning.

(8) The community has the primary role in creating and enforcing policies. At Wikirate International e.V., we rarely intervene in the community's decisions about policies and their enforcement. In exceptional cases, the need may arise or the community may ask us to deal with a particularly problematic user who is exhibiting significant disruption or dangerous behaviour. In such cases, we have the right, but not the obligation, to investigate the use of the service in question in order to

  1. Determine whether there has been a violation of these Terms of Use, the Platform Editorial Guidelines, or 
  2. any other applicable law or regulation, or to comply with any applicable law, legal process or 
  3. governmental request; 
  4. detect, prevent or otherwise address security or technical problems or respond to user support requests; 
  5. block, disable or restrict access to the contributions of a user who violates these Terms of Use, including repeated copyright violations, or suspend a user's account or access; 
  6. take legal action against users who violate these Terms of Use (including reporting them to law enforcement authorities); 
  7. and otherwise administer the Wikirate Site in a manner that facilitates its proper operation and protects the rights, property, and safety of us, our users, licensors, partners, and the public.

(9) Because we offer a wide range of content created or collected by other users, it is possible that you may encounter material that you find offensive, inaccurate, misleading, mislabelled or otherwise objectionable. We therefore ask you to exercise common sense and reasonable judgement when using our services.

(10) If the user enters data containing the names, addresses and information of third parties which may not be publicly available and for which such third parties may have a legitimate interest in the confidentiality of their personal data, the user must obtain the permission of such third parties for publication on the Website and use through the channels defined in these Terms of Use prior to publication on the Website.

(11) Users of this website may delete their profile at any time by sending a message to stating the email address of the profile. The user's profile and personal data will be deleted within 4 weeks and this will be confirmed by e-mail. The content posted will remain in the database under a generic profile pseudonym.

In the event of inactivity for more than 5 years, the user's profile data will also be deleted and the content will be pseudonymised.

(12) If a user violates the conditions for posting content/texts/pictures, Wikirate has the right to add, change or remove content without notice, especially without giving reasons. Illegal contributions will be deleted immediately after becoming known. In special cases, a user may be excluded from participation completely and his or her data and profile may be deleted.

(13) In principle, there is no right to the publication of content. There is no right to remuneration for activities, contributions or ideas on the website, unless we have agreed to this in writing.

 

§ 2 Licence 

(1) The content of Wikirate is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

(2) The database infrastructure is also licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

(3) The CC BY-SA 4.0 licence allows the material to be reproduced and redistributed. The work may also be remixed, modified and built upon. The conditions for this are that appropriate copyright and legal information must be provided, a link to the licence must be included, and it must be stated whether changes have been made. Modified material may only be distributed under the same licence.

(4) This is only an abbreviated version of the licence terms; the full terms on Creativecommons.org apply.

(5) The user hereby expressly declares that he/she owns all necessary rights to the content posted. This applies in particular to copyrights to the photos and texts, industrial property rights and personal rights of persons depicted. If the user uses data and images that he/she has not entirely created himself/herself, but has obtained from third parties or has taken from third parties, he/she must clarify with these parties whether he/she is entitled to post and publish these data on the website before posting them on the website. By posting on the Website, the User guarantees that it has effectively obtained all necessary transfers of rights, licences, permissions, consents and the like. Should the user violate these guarantees, he/she shall indemnify Wikirates from all claims in this regard, including the costs of legal defence.

(6) The user assures that he has not granted or will not grant any rights to third parties that could conflict with this agreement.

 

§ 3 Liability 

(1) Wikirate assumes no liability for the completeness, up-to-dateness, correctness or other quality of the information provided. Wikirate offers this information only as a mediator.

(2) The user has to take into account that this information can change at any time.

(3) Furthermore, it is pointed out that the publication of user content on the website does not constitute a statement, evaluation or recommendation by Wikirate. This publication by Wikirate or the retrieval of this and other content by the user does not constitute information and/or advice. Every user declares that he uses the content on his own responsibility.

(4) Wikirate does not guarantee the uninterrupted availability of content/data and information. Wikirate expressly reserves the right to block, change, supplement or delete parts of the pages, complete pages or the entire offer without prior notice or to cease publication temporarily or permanently.

(5) The pre-contractual, contractual and non-contractual liability of Wikirate is limited to intent and gross negligence as well as to the violation of essential contractual obligations. The limitation of liability also applies to vicarious agents.

(6) In the event of culpable injury to life, limb or health and for liability claims under the Product Liability Act, the above limitations or exclusions of liability shall not apply.

 

§ 4 Indemnification 

(1) The user indemnifies Wikirate from all claims of third parties which are asserted against Wikirate due to contents entered by the user and/or due to non-contractual, improper and/or illegal use of the website, in particular due to infringement of copyrights, personal rights, property rights or industrial property rights of third parties, in particular the costs of legal defence. The user will support Wikirate in the defence of such claims, in particular by providing all information necessary for the defence.

(2) The user is obliged to compensate Wikirate for the damage caused by the justified claim of a third party. This claim for damages also includes the costs of Wikirate's own legal defence.

 

§ 5 Privacy 

(1) Wikirate allows users without an account to use the website anonymously. In this case only statistical data like IP address and time of access will be saved.

(2) In order to create an account, the user must provide personal data, especially an email address, but it is not possible to use an account without this information.

 

§ 6 Amendment of the Terms of Use 

(1) These General Terms of Use for the use of the website apply to all users who have registered and/or use the services of the website from 1 May 2025.

(2) Furthermore, Wikirate reserves the right to amend, supplement or renew these terms and conditions with effect for the future, without any obligation to notify the user. If any provision of these terms and conditions is found to be invalid, void or for any reason unenforceable, that provision shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Wikirate's web pages contain the current version as of the effective date. Continued use of the website constitutes the user's acceptance of the changes. It is recommended that you check the Terms of Use regularly for changes.

 

§ 7 Final Provisions

(1) The laws of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply to the extent that they do not conflict with internationally binding legal provisions, international agreements and, in particular, internationally binding consumer protection regulations.

(2) The place of jurisdiction for merchants, for users who do not have a general place of jurisdiction in Germany, as well as for users who have moved their residence or usual place of abode abroad after the conclusion of the contract or whose residence or usual place of abode is not known at the time the action is brought, as well as for passive lawsuits, is the registered office of Wikirate in Berlin. This does not apply if international agreements or consumer protection regulations stipulate otherwise.

(3) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies to all legal relationships between the parties. In the case of consumers, this choice of law only applies to the extent that the protection granted by mandatory provisions of the law of the state in which the consumer has his habitual residence is not withdrawn.

(4) Should one or more provisions of these Terms of Use be or become invalid in whole or in part, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.

(5) These Terms of Use do not create an employment, agency, partnership, or joint venture relationship between you and us, Wikirate International e.V. Unless you have signed a separate agreement with us, these Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and us. In the event of a conflict between these Terms of Use and a signed written agreement between you and us, the signed agreement will control.