General Fotoii Use Agreement

Participation in Fotoii is tied to consent to the «General Fotoii Use Agreement.» The Fotoii Use Agreement establishes an agreement between you and Marcel Boner (MB). It is the owner of Fotoii, is responsible for all services associated with Fotoii and holds all rights to Fotoii. By accepting the Fotoii Use Agreement, you commit to complying with the rules. By your consent, you also transfer rights to MB as the owner of Fotoii. These rights are defined in the Agreement and concern the use of your submissions transferred to Fotoii. In this Agreement, the terms submission and submissions refer to all photos, articles, critiques, commentaries, news and evaluations that you send to Fotoii. Furthermore, the terms «we», «us» and «our» refer to MB and persons delegated by MB. The terms «you» and «your» refer to you and to any person you allow to use your Fotoii account.

There are various types of use of Fotoii: open access for visitors of websites, participation as a guest, membership, buying prints, participation as a donor or as a scholarship recipient of the Fotoii Scholarship Society.

As a visitor, you enjoy free access to all published Essays. And you are able to acquire prints of the exhibited photographes, photo books and other services. Fotoii guaranties the genuineness, the limited edition and the number of an acquired print.

Participation in Fotoii as a guest allows you to exchange ideas with the exhibiting artists and to rate the exhibited Essays with the Fotoii rating system. Participation as a guest is free.

Membership is open to all photo artists who a) where invited by us to exhibit their work or b) have decided on their own initiative to exhibit their work and apply for membership with their exhibition. Photo artists invited by us receive access to the Fotoii Desk and one or more Essays (electronic archive and exhibition areas) at no charge for lifelong use. If you exhibit your work at Fotoii from your own initiative, you get two Essay free with access to the Fotoii Desk. The published Essays are reviewed by the Fotoii Team for its statement, content and technical quality and can be rejected by the team without any reason given. If the Essays are accepted, you become a member of Fotoii as soon as you have payd the subscription fee for the two Essays. If you make use of saving and managing electronic image files on Fotoii without publishing an Essay, after a certain amount of time we will ask you to transfer a contribution. The contribution depends on the data saved and it is at least 24 euros. If you refuse to make the contribution, we can delete your files with prior warning at the announced time. We can charge a membership fee which must be displayed in advance. Currently we do not charge a membership fee. You can be recognised by the Fotoii Team as a Fotoii Photographer. Recognition qualifies you to exhibit Essays in the Fotoii Gallery and to sell handcrafted collector’s prints.

You can acquire Fotoii collector’s prints of the submitted and identified photos and other services and pay electronically or by bank instructions. When ordering prints or hand-signed photo books, you are accepting a reasonable delivery date which deviates from the announced time which can result, for example, from the absence of a photographer. During your purchase, items in the shopping cart are still at our free disposal. Upon payment, items are given to you with a solid guarantee and belong to you. We guarantee the genuineness of a Fotoii Collector‘s Print, its limited edition and the edition number of the print. The limitation of the edition refers to the print type and the edition indicated in the offer. Please note the descriptions for Fotoii Collector‘s Prints starting on page 5 of this agreement. You have the right to reject delivered items within 10 days and to return them in their intact, sealed original packaging and undamaged. Resending ordered prints is contingent on our prior written permission. All items are returned at your own expense. For items which are returned in flawless condition, you will immediately receive a credit for the prices and costs charged to you (item price plus shipping cost portion). As a customer of Fotoii, you have the same opportunities as a guest member (point 4).

You can support the efforts of the Fotoii Scholarship Society with a donation. The Fotoii Scholarship Society grants scholarships to talented young photographers who apply to the Society for a scholarship. As a donor, you will be regularly informed about the use of all funds of the Society. You also have the ability to have an exchange of ideas with the scholarship recipients. You also enjoy all of the benefits of a guest membership. If you are a talented young photographer, you can enquire about a scholarship from the Fotoii Scholarship Society to continue your further training as a photographer. As a scholarship recipient, you are qualified to sell prints. We transfer 20% of the fees paid to us, which are indicated in this agreement, to the Fotoii Scholarship Society.

The term Essay describes a thematic exhibition of photographs which show the selected topic in a special way. The authors of the selected Essays are photographers who exhibit their work under a pseudonym or their own name. An Essay archives an unlimited number of electronic image files. If the Essay is published, the number of pictures which you have indicated (maximum 16 photos) appear on the Fotoii web pages. The published Essay can be viewed by all visitors of the Fotoii web pages. Members and guests can rank the Essay. Ratings qualify people for Fotoii Awards and to sell prints. You must own the copyright for exhibited photos. If you took the picture, you generally hold the copyright; if not, you would have had to assign the copyright to someone. If you are not in possession of the copyright, do not submit the picture. Do not do so even if you do possess other, more extensive rights to the photo. The use of photo mails (e-Cards) and for advertising purposes is at no charge to us. If we use one of your pictures, you will be notified in advance and mentioned as the creator. In addition to the Essays at no charge, you can subscribe to additional Essays for a fee. Currently the subscription fee costs € 12 / $ 16 per Essay and is valid for one year. It can be extended when the year expires. We will indicate the due date to you by email one month before the expiration date. We can increase the fee at any time with prior notice. The increase applies when the subscription expires. We can limit the number of published Essays. We can reject an Essay at any time without indicating the reasons. If any fees were paid with the Essay, the fees are completely reimbursed.

Artists invited by us have the opportunity to sell reproductions of the photos they exhibit at Fotoii as Fotoii Collector’s Prints. If we take over the sale, then you transfer the sales rights of this photo for every type of the reproduction exclusively to us. The limited uses of the photo for opportunities with a limited commercial period of use such as advertisements, advertising posters and other forms of reproduction for advertising purposes are not subject to our exclusive right. If the photo is used for advertising purposes, there is an obligation to provide information to us. In the event of the sale of image rights, the exclusive right assigned to us remains and must be also complied with the buyer of the image rights and guaranteed by him in writing to our attention. The reproductions are offered exclusively as collector‘s prints to the customer. Here the offer is expressly limited to the types, sizes and editions offered in the first publication. The offering defined by you and us together at the start of the sale can notbe expanded later because otherwise its exclusive nature, which is very important to us, would be lost. We limit offers expressly to the prints which are created in the dark room, digital prints and serigraphs. Furthermore, three sizes per offer are permitted. You determine the sales price where the price cannot be below the minimum price. We will suggest a price scale to you based on your price idea, print size and edition number which is based on values gained from experience. As a basis for the sales release, you send us a reference print (artist proof) for every reproduction type and size. This reproduction remains with us (but in your possession) until the edition is sold. Together we can decide to offer the artist proof for sale. The reproductions are created by you yourself or on your behalf. You describe the production and quality of the production to the attention of the Fotoii customers. To do this, see the following example: My prints are created by Wolfgang Moersch Photochemie based on my specifications. Each image is created individually from the original negative in archive quality, it is partially coloured with permanent colours and applied to acid-free museum card board. In certain nuances, it can deviate from the image shown. We guarantee the buyer exclusivity of the acquired Fotoii Collector‘s Print. The exclusivity results from the defined reproduction types, sizes and editions released for sale. The guarantee is made through the Fotoii certificate of genuineness. The Fotoii certificate of genuineness is printed at Orell Füssli Security Printing Ltd in Zurich and guarantees and protects the exclusivity of the limited editions to an unparalleled level. Every certificate carries the unit serial number of the certificate, the name of the artist as the author of the photo, the title of the photo, the reproduction types, sizes and editions offered for purchase and in particular the edition number and edition of the certified Fotoii Collector’s Prints, the date on which the photo was taken, the artist’s statement on the photo and the signature of the author, the printer and the person designated by Fotoii. We send the print in the package delivered by us based on the documents supplied by us and guidelines supplied by us to the buyer who assumes the shipping costs. You are to follow our instructions for sending, which guarantee smooth delivery of the buyer’s costs. Within 30 days after the sale of a print is definitively concluded we transfer the agreed share of the sales price to you. If a buyer returns a print in the sealed original packaging, no payment is due. If we have released the sale for the reproductions, the referenced reproduction types, editions, sizes and prices are frozen. Together we can decide if we change the price based on the demand. The photo will be advertised on various Fotoii web sites so that it is clear from many perspectives that Collector’s Prints can be acquired from this photo.

If you have qualified for the sale of prints, then you can offer your signed photo books for purchase via Fotoii. To set up the offer, provide us with a book. Within 30 days after the sale of a book is definitively concluded we transfer the agreed share of the sales price to you. You send the book to the buyer. To do this, you will receive all of the required documents from us. Follow our instructions for handling. On the web pages we will set up a special promotion that we arrange with you, in which you can offer your photo book prints exclusively via Fotoii.

All rights for the exhibited pictures lie exclusively with the exhibiting photographers. Downloading submissions by other participants in any form is prohibited. Also extracts of pictures which are used for example to display Essays may not be downloaded. By sending submissions to us, you permit us to use them in Fotoii and, if the need arises, to edit and modify them. We are entitled to use your submissions on the Internet (world wide web) for advertising purposes to the benefit of Fotoii. We will inform you of such use via email.

As a Fotoii Member, you have access to the Fotoii Desk. The Fotoii Desk offers you a) the electronic management of an unlimited number of photos in an unlimited number of folders. b) access to the folders for persons to whom you have sent the associated link. c) the publication of Essays. d) rating of published Essays of other members. e) the sale of prints, if you have already qualified for them. f) a number of other advantages.

You agree that we can change the user prompting and the possibilities for visitors and participants at any time. You also agree that we can change the user prompting and the possibilities for visitors and participants at any time without prior notice. Any changes will be announced to you. Within one month after payment, you can request reimbursement of fees paid for services which you did not use. We will retain a processing charge of 10 euros. The information provided by you when registering must be true. If we should suspect that the information is not correct, we can suspend use until we have the correct information. In case of doubt, we can terminate the business relationship and completely reimburse any fees paid for services not yet used. You agree that we can terminate the business relationship at any time if you violate or have violated the agreements or your conduct is not consistent with the spirit of the agreement. You agree that we will delete all of your submissions that we consider aggressive, offensive or inappropriate in any other manner. You follow our instructions for the agreed use of Fotoii. You should inform your administrator of violations of which you become aware. We will remove submissions that are in violation of the law from the Fotoii pages and we will forward the content to the appropriate authorities. Should you be investigated by an authority in connection with submissions to Fotoii, we will provide the authority with all required information. You are responsible for the use of your account at Fotoii. You or a third party authorised by you may not hold Fotoii or MB or their representatives responsible in any manner. This also applies to transfer interruptions that may arise for technical reasons. You agree that we may enter into mediation for the settlement of any disputes. Should this be to no avail, the sole place of jurisdiction is Zurich, Switzerland. These agreements apply exclusively in German and other agreements apply which are accepted as part of use. You indicate your acceptance of the Fotoii Use Agreement by pressing the button for the conditions of participation. Marcel Boner /mb@mboner.com