Terms of Use for Creatives as of October 2023
Ads Broker LLC, 1603 Capitol Avenue, Suite 413 #4139, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001, United States of America (hereinafter referred to as Ads Broker) operates the platform available under URL www.ads.broker.com (hereinafter referred to as “platform”). Crowdstorms and/or other creative projects (hereinafter referred to collectively as “projects”) are organized on a regular basis on the platform that are issued by third-party companies (hereinafter referred to as “clients”) or by Ads Broker. Within the scope of the projects, you – alongside many other international creative talents (hereinafter referred to collectively as “creatives”) – can submit ideas and/or other work (hereinafter referred to collectively as “ideas”). Moreover, clients and Ads Broker may purchase ideas submitted by creatives to the platform in order to exploit them commercially.
The terms of use listed below contain the basic rules governing the use of the platform and all associated legal transactions and quasi-contractual actions between creatives and Ads Broker. Furthermore, projects are also governed by specific or other project terms, which in cases of uncertainty have precedence over these terms of use. The contractual terms agreed between Ads Broker and individual clients apply to clients wishing to organize projects.
We hereby reject any terms and conditions of creatives insofar as they contain provisions that differ from or conflict with the terms of use set out below, the terms of the project and/or other project terms.
According to these general terms of use, the following concepts have the following meaning.
1.1 A ‘creative’ is any natural person or legal entity that has registered to participate in projects on the platform. As part of the registration, the person concerned must indicate whether the registration is being made on his own behalf or as a representative of a legal entity. If the person performing registration is acting on behalf of a legal entity, that person must guarantee that he is authorized to represent the legal entity. If registration is performed on behalf of a legal entity, the person performing registration as well as the legal entity are considered to be “creatives” in the sense of this agreement.
1.2 A ‘client’ is any sponsor of the platform who uses it to place his own projects on the platform based on a separate contractual agreement with Ads Broker and in which creatives can participate.
1.3 ‘Ideas’ in the sense of these terms of use are all creative content that a creative places and makes accessible in a project (see below for more on this) on the platform. The concept covers ideas for communications, conceptual plans, other text, graphics work, photographs, videos, musical compositions, sketches and other images that are submitted in digital form.
1.4 ‘Work samples’ according to these terms of use are all creative content that the creative places in his creative profile in digital form for the purpose of self-presentation.
1.5 ‘Karma’ in the sense of these terms of use is a Ads Broker-specific indicator of a creative’s activity on the platform and of the quality of that activity. Examples of activity include the following: commenting on, rating, submitting ideas, selling ideas or achieving a top place with an idea. Ads Broker may specify, vary and weight these attributes differently. Creatives may be assigned certain rights and privileges based on their karma value (e.g. for rating ideas). There is, however, no automatic entitlement to this.
2.1 In order to be able to use all the functions of the platform, and in particular in order to submit ideas, the creative must register with the platform for, among other things, identification purposes. Ads Broker provides an online form for the purpose of registration. After the creative has entered the required details, the creative must then agree to these terms of use. By submitting the form, the creative creates a profile on the platform. At the same time, the creative receives a confirmation e-mail containing a link at the e-mail address he has given. By clicking on the link, the creative verifies the e-mail address and, by extension, the user account. The user agreement is concluded when the creative clicks on the link.
As an alternative, registration may be performed via third-party providers (for example Facebook or Twitter). Details of this can be found in our data privacy policy. In this case, no separate notification of activation will be given, and the user agreement is concluded when the creative consents to these terms of use on the platform.
2.2 The creative is obliged to provide truthful and, where the data in question are mandatory, complete details for the information required during registration. In particular, the creative is not permitted to enter details of third parties. Ads Broker reserves the right to demand proof of the creative’s identity and of the authenticity of the details provided in the course of registration. Furthermore, Ads Broker also reserves the right to verify the creative’s identity by reading out technical information (such as IP address, etc.) or through the use of other technical means. After registration, the creative must immediately update any details supplied in his user account should these change. Multiple registration under different user names is not permitted.
2.3 In the course of registration, the creative specifies a user name and password (hereinafter referred to as “access data”). The creative must keep the access data secret and store them safely from access by unauthorized third parties. It is not permitted to disclose these details to third parties, including other creatives. If the creative loses the access data, or if he discovers or suspects that the access data are being used by an unauthorized third party, he must report this to Ads Broker immediately.
2.4 Ads Broker reserves the right to decline a creative’s registration without giving any reason.
2.5 Underage persons or other persons without the legal capacity, or with restricted legal capacity, to enter into a contract are not allowed to register to use the platform without the consent of their legal guardian(s). If registration is performed by a person in breach of the aforementioned requirements, Ads Broker will be entitled to withdraw and to delete the registration.
2.6 Ads Broker reserves the right to display third-party advertising in user profiles and to reserve advertising space on the profile pages for this purpose.
2.7 Notwithstanding the opportunity to present his own work samples and the associated self-advertising this provides, the creative may not use the user profile to advertise his own commercial offering (in the form of price lists, etc.). Any advertising for third-party offerings is forbidden.
2.8 Ads Broker reserves the right to invite creatives to participate in a project INVITE through the service of MailChimp.
3.1 Ads Broker or clients regularly organize projects on the platform in which creatives can participate. The arrangements for each project may differ. The creative can learn the terms of participation from the conditions and briefing of the relevant project.
3.2 The relevant project conditions determine whether fixed compensation and/or a monetary and/or non-cash prize can be gained through participation in the project. If the project has no specific details about this, it can be assumed in the case of uncertainty that (1) the creative can receive a monetary and/or non-cash prize through participation in the project which (2) is awarded by the client and/or by a jury and/or through consultation with the community and or by Ads Broker.
3.3 All projects are subject to the provisions of these terms of use, in particular section 9 relating to the creative’s liability for content he contributes as well as to the respective project provisions and any supplementary terms communicated to the creative by Ads Broker or the relevant project’s sponsor. The creative must accept all terms prescribed by Ads Broker or the sponsor in order to participate in the relevant project.
3.4 Ads Broker and the client reserve the right to terminate any project prematurely without disclosing reasons. Ads Broker and the client reserve the right to restrict access to particular projects to specific creatives or groups of creatives and in doing so to make participation subject to special terms (see section 3.1.). Ads Broker may introduce corresponding criteria for this purpose.
3.5 Restricted-access projects are confidential. The creative is not permitted to disclose the briefing, parts of the briefing, or any other information provided in the briefing to third parties, or to use the aforesaid outside of the project. Ads Broker or the client may require the creative to consent to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for selected projects.
4.1 Under certain circumstances and for certain projects, creatives may rate and comment upon the ideas and associated works of other creatives in the course of a project.
4.2 Ratings and comments are publicly accessible – except in the case of restricted-access projects as defined in sections 3.5. – which means that the creative’s name/picture/work will be shown.
4.3 Ratings are processed using an algorithm provided by Ads Broker in order to avoid incorrect weighting (e.g. one positive rating with no negative rating would yield a result of 100 % endorsement, while 98 positive ratings and two negative ratings would only result in a 98 % endorsement; the algorithm is designed to compensate for such distortions). The idea that scores the highest rating wins the project. Ads Broker reserves the right to adapt the algorithm to changing circumstances in order to ensure that as many equitable results as possible are achieved. The algorithm is one of Ads Broker’s commercial secrets and therefore cannot be disclosed.
4.4 Voting is an essential function of the Ads Broker community. Creatives must endeavor to be as objective as possible and to observe the conditions and criteria which apply to voting. The following rules apply in order to guarantee the integrity of voting:
4.4.1 The creative may not give a rating to ideas in whose development or execution he was involved.
4.4.2 Furthermore, it is forbidden to give ratings using a false or more than one creative account.
4.4.3 The creative undertakes to submit objective ratings and to use the full range of voting functionality.
4.4.4 The creative is obliged to respect the rights of other creatives in ratings and comments. In particular, this involves refraining from insulting other creatives or harming their ideas. Criticism is allowed, but it must be objective and appropriate in every case.
4.4.5 Furthermore, it is not allowed to collude with other creatives in order to express specific criticism or to submit specific comments or ratings.
4.4.6 It is not permitted to induce other creatives to submit specific ratings, whether through the use of threats, the offer of benefits, the submission of mutually positive ratings or in any other way.
4.5 In cases where Ads Broker suspects that the rules have been infringed, it may block the creative/creatives temporarily, or permanently exclude them from the platform and/or, in the event of serious infringement, exercise its extraordinary right to terminate the user agreement. Ads Broker monitors and analyzes all voting processes and will intervene where necessary. Ads Broker reserves the right to annul the votes of individual creatives when it suspects manipulation and may, as a consequence, modify the result of a project appropriately.
5.1 As part of a project, monetary and/or non-cash prizes (see section 3.2) may be awarded according to a rating given by the community. In this case, every creative can rate an idea using the Ads Broker rating system (see section 4 above). Ideas that accordingly attain the highest ratings win the project and the prizes offered.
5.2 Ads Broker checks over the entire course of the project and after the final submission date whether there are any indications of possible abuse of the rating function. Provided this is not the case, Ads Broker will announce the winners on the platform. However, in the event of any suspicion of abuse of the rating function during the evaluation period, Ads Broker reserves the right to annul the ratings for the creatives in question or the entire voting process. In the latter case, the result for the entire project will be annulled; the prizes offered will not be disbursed.
5.3 Winners of a project will receive the prizes offered. Community prizes are awarded in descending order. The client’s choice award is selected by the client independent of its placing. The creatives concerned are obliged to provide Ads Broker with their full proper name, address and account details if they have not already done so in their creative profile. Ads Broker is not obliged to establish the data required for disbursing prizes itself. In this case, Ads Broker is also entitled, but not obliged, to check that the details provided by the creative are correct. Ads Broker may in particular require the creative to submit copies of official documents (e.g. identity card or ID number).
6.1 Ads Broker will as a general principle effect payment via PayPal.
6.2 If a creative does not able to receive payment via PayPal, payment can also be effected by bank transfer. For this purpose, the creative must provide the details of a bank account that allow payment to be effected using the SEPA process. Otherwise, the creative will be obliged to bear the costs associated with the bank transfer and any chargebacks or other fees and costs.
6.3 Ads Broker reserves the right to perform a check on the identity of the creative and verification of the creative’s bank or PayPal account before payment. The creative undertakes to collaborate with the verification to an appropriate degree. Ads Broker is entitled to refuse payment if the creative fails to cooperate in the manner requested by Ads Broker.
6.4 The creative will receive a credit voucher/credit note as evidence of the win. It is sent to the creative on payment. Ads Broker can make the payment dependent on the creative issuing a due and proper invoice indicating Ads Broker as invoicee. The invoice must contain all the information required to meet German tax regulations and which Ads Broker requires in order to claim tax. Ads Broker will inform the creative about tax requirements on request.
6.5 The winner bears sole responsibility for payment of any tax due in connection with a disbursement.
6.6 The agreed remuneration is usually paid within 8-12 weeks after the end of the project.
7.1 The creative can present himself and his talent to the general public and the community in the platform user profile. To this end, he can upload work samples, in particular picture, video and audio files in popular formats, to his user profile. Ads Broker reserves the right to reject or to delete the creative’s work samples uploaded to the user profile without giving any reason.
7.2 A creative uploading a work sample to his user profile grants to Ads Broker non-exclusive transferable rights, without restriction on time, space or content, to use the content to the extent required for the operation of the platform. In particular, the creative grants to Ads Broker the right to hold the work samples on the platform for access by third parties (making them available to the public) and to make any copies necessary for this purpose. The creative also grants to Ads Broker the right to edit the works in question in order to present them more favorably on the website.
7.3 The creative may only apply for certain projects by submitting work samples if he wishes to participate in restricted-access projects in accordance with section 3.5.
It is possible for the creative to send messages to other creatives via the messaging system provided by Ads Broker and to add other creatives as contacts to his user profile. The creative is in no way permitted to use the messaging system or networking functions in an automated manner, e.g. for spamming or in order to add friends. Furthermore, the creative must respect another creative’s express wish not to be, or no longer to be, contacted.
9.1 The creative assures Ads Broker that he will not submit to the platform any illegal or other impermissible content in accordance with this clause and/or offer such content and or make such content accessible and/or advertise it.
This applies in particular to content (especially graphics, videos, photographs, pieces of music and text)
9.1.1 which contravene the provisions of the German criminal code or other criminal norms and/or represent means of propaganda in terms of paragraph 86 of the German Criminal Code,
9.1.2 whose content is aimed against the free democratic basic order or the concept of international understanding,
9.1.3 which uses the symbols of unconstitutional organizations in terms of paragraph 86a of the German Criminal Code,
9.1.4 which incite hatred towards sections of the population, or against a specific national, racial, religious or ethnic group, which advocate violence or arbitrary acts against them, which attack the dignity of others by insulting, maliciously offending or defaming sections of the population or any of the aforementioned groups, or which depict cruel or otherwise brutal violence against humans in any way,
9.1.5 which glorify or trivialize such acts of violence, or which portray the cruelty or brutality of an action in a manner that violates human dignity; this also applies to virtual representations that glorify war, violate human dignity, in particular through the portrayal of people dying or who are or have been exposed to extreme physical or mental suffering, while reporting actual facts without any justified public interest in such form of representation or reporting being given; any agreement granted is irrelevant,
9.1.6 which portray children or young people in unnatural and blatantly sexual positions, which are pornographic, or which depict violence, the sexual abuse of children or young people or sexual acts between humans and animals, which have been included in sections B and D of the list according to paragraph 18 of the German Young Persons Protection Act (JuSchG), or whose contents are equivalent to or broadly similar to a work included in such list (absolute prohibition in terms of paragraph 4, section 1 of the Federal Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media [JMStV]),
9.1.7 which in any other way are pornographic, which have been included in sections A and C of the list according to paragraph 18 of the German Young Persons Protection Act (JuSchG), or whose content is equivalent to or broadly similar to a work included in such list, and/or is clearly likely to seriously endanger the development of children and young people or their upbringing to become independent and active members of society, taking into account the specific effect of the medium of transmission (relative prohibition in terms of paragraph 4, section 2 of the Federal Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media [JMStV]).
9.1.8 The creative must notify Ads Broker of any content which is likely to pose a risk to the development of children and young people or their upbringing to become independent and active members of society, in particular such content which, according to the German Young Persons Protection Act (JuSchG), has not been approved for the relevant age group, or which is largely similar with offerings that according to the German Young Persons Protection Act have not been approved for the relevant age group (development-impairing offerings in terms of paragraph 5 sections 1, 2 of the Federal Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media [JMStV]).
9.2 All the above provisions also apply to virtual representations.
9.3 In particular, content that is insulting, defamatory or is any other way derogatory is also illegal.
9.4 Content is also prohibited which infringes the right to the protection of personal privacy and the right to one’s own image, since it infringes the rights of third parties. The creative must in particular guarantee that photographs, graphics and videos submitted only depict persons who consent to the publication of their image on platforms such as Ads Broker.com and to its further use by a company, above all in advertising. It is immaterial in this context whether the works involve only a person who is incidental to the subject, i.e. is in the background of the main motif of the image, photograph or video, largely escapes the attention of the viewer and has no influence on the subject of the work. The consent of the appropriate legal guardian must be obtained if the person depicted has no full legal capacity.
9.5 Content is also prohibited whose use on the platform or by third parties, in particular clients, would infringe rights relating to copyright, design, performance protection and trademarks of third parties. Content subject to rights utilization through the Society for Musical Performance and Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA) may not be submitted to Ads Broker in any circumstance.
9.6 Furthermore, the creative is not allowed to set hyperlinks in his user profile that reference offerings of third parties when the relevant websites have content that is subject to the above provisions.
9.7 Content that infringes the above provisions, or any other objectionable content, may be reported to Ads Broker using a procedure intended for this purpose.
It is forbidden to upload viruses, trojans, corresponding scripts and programs and similar harmful code to the platform. The same applies to denial-of-service and similar attacks (e.g. hacking) on the platform and/or individual user profiles.
Ads Broker is liable in accordance with legal provisions subject to the following restrictions:
11.1 Ads Broker will not be liable for damage suffered by the creative as a result of the loss of data where the damage would have been avoided through a regular and complete backup of all relevant data by the creative.
11.2 In the event of slightly negligent actions or omissions, liability on the part of Ads Broker is excluded for damage which is not normally associated with this type of agreement or which was unforeseen, unless injury to life, body or health is involved or liability is subject to the Product Liability Act (ProdHaftG).
Ads Broker reserves the right to caution the creative on infringement of these terms of use and/or to temporarily or permanently disable his creative account in order ensure that he observes his obligations. The creative will be notified of any caution or disabled account in written form. The contractual relationship may also be terminated in exceptional circumstances. All other rights to pursue further claims remain unaffected.
13.1 The user agreement is concluded for an indefinite period.
13.2 The creative can terminate the agreement normally at any time with a period of notice of four weeks. As a general rule, the four-week period of notice also applies to Ads Broker. The user agreement and the project provisions cannot be terminated while an idea of the creative is still part of a project that has not yet concluded or is involved in the selection process. A project is deemed to have concluded even when it continues to be accessible as a reference project on the platform.
13.3 Ads Broker and the creative are, however, entitled to give immediate notice of termination in exceptional circumstances for important reasons. Ads Broker may give notice of termination in exceptional circumstances, in particular in the event of a serious infringements of these terms of use, especially an infringement against the obligation to accurately provide the required details, against the principles of voting, or in the event of loss, or on suspicion of the misuse, of login information by a third party.
13.4 In the event of the user account being disabled or Ads Broker terminating the agreement for an important reason, the creative concerned is prohibited from re-registering for the platform and opening a new user account until Ads Broker gives its explicit prior consent.
All information relating to data protection and data security can be found in Ads Broker’s data privacy policy.
15.1 Ads Broker reserves the right to change these terms of use at any time. Changes or new terms of use will be communicated to the creative by e-mail.
15.2 The new terms of use will be deemed to be agreed if the creative fails to challenge their validity within 14 days of receipt by e-mail. Any objection must be made in writing. In its e-mail, Ads Broker will make special mention of the possibility of objection, of the deadline and of the consequences for the creative. If the creative objects, each party is entitled to terminate the user agreement in writing with a period of notice applicable for normal termination.
15.3 The possibility of changing the terms of use in accordance with the aforementioned provisions does not exist for modifications that have a negative effect on the content and extent of core use options of the platform for the creative, i.e. especially participation in projects, and for the introduction of new obligations for the creative that were previously not included in the terms of use.
16.1 If the creative is a businessperson, a legal person governed by public law or a separate estate under public law, the place of jurisdiction for all legal disputes arising directly or indirectly from the contractual relationship between Ads Broker and the creative is
1603 Capitol Avenue, Suite 413 #4139, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001, United States of America.
16.2 The laws of the United States of America will apply exclusively to the contractual relationship between Ads Broker and the creative as well as to these terms of use.
