License agreement for free-of-charge software

Current version, last change 15 July 2020.

This agreement applies to software we distribute free of charge, which has been explicitly marked as licensed under this agreement. Other license agreements are available on the index page.

1. General

  1. This license and usage agreement (henceforth agreement) is concluded between Dirk Steinmetz (henceforth the provider) and customers (henceforth the customer). It governs the scope, terms and conditions of usage and other rights regarding add-ons, add-ins and any other additional software components complementing separated licensed GeneralSync applications, as well as their user documentation and other accompanying materials (henceforth the software), granted free of charge by the provider to the customer. The provider's terms of service apply in addition.

  2. As part of this agreement, the customer also may also gain rights to use services provided by the provider, for example to download the software or to receive updates. The details are handled in section 5 of this agreement.

  3. This agreement also applies to new versions of the software, as far as provided by the provider (e.g. patches, bug fixes, updates, upgrades).

  4. The customer is hereby advised that installing the latest updates, as well as following the documentation and a good backup strategy (creation and secure storage of regularly created backup copies of all data) is highly recommended and failure to do so may cause security issues and severe malfunctions (e.g. total loss of data).

  5. This agreement is conclusive regarding all obligations of the provider towards the customer. The provider neither gives a guarantee for the correctness or any usability of the software, nor for the availability of any services. Conflicting or deviating terms or conditions causing any obligation to the provider are not recognized by the provider, unless the provider has explicitly accepted the same.

  6. The provider may alter this agreement with the consent of the customer, as long as changes are appropriate for the customer while taking the interests of the provider into account. The customer's consent is considered granted if the customer does not object within one month after receiving notice of said changes. The provider is obliged to notify the customer of the consequences of omitting objection.

2. Rights of use

  1. Grant of license:

    • As part of this agreement, the provider grants the customer the non-exclusive and revocable right to download and use the software in connection with separately licensed applications of the provider.

    • Within these limits, the customer may exercise their right to use the software through third parties (henceforth users), as long as those users also agree to this agreement. If users violate this agreement, the customer and the violating users are jointly liable for the violation.

  2. The software is licensed subject to the provisions hereof, not transferred. The software remains property of the provider. The provider reserves all right to reproduce the software, full or in part, including but not limited to any related documentation, logo, trade mark or interface.

  3. The license comprises all currently known and unknown type of uses, which are or will be required to attain the contractual purpose.

  4. Any rights not explicitly granted to the customer according to this section are reserved to the provider. Personal rights are unaffected.

3. Other rights and obligations of the customer

  1. The customer may create derivative works of, adapt or translate those parts of the software not declared third-party- or open source software according to section 4. The customer must not sell, sublicense or otherwise transfer such changes to third parties.

  2. The customer may, however, transfer their changes to the provider. Upon such transfer, the customer grants any rights of use regarding the transferred changes to the provider, free of charge and without restrictions. The license granted to the provider is not limited in scope or time and will persist even after this agreement is terminated. The provider is not obligated to use such changes in any way.

  3. The customer is not permitted to sell, rent, sublicense, lease, transfer, assign or surrender the rights granted by this agreement, without explicit permission by the provider. Any transfer of the software or derivatives thereof to third parties is explicitly prohibited.

  4. The customer explicitly acknowledges that removal, obfuscation or change of proprietary notices contained within or distributed with the software is not permitted. The same also holds true for notices of copyright and trademarks.

4. Third-party and open source software

  1. The software may contain third-party and or open source software, whose use is governed by separate license agreements. The customer may gain additional rights regarding these portions of the software by accepting these separate agreements, which are available for download besides the software.

5. Related services and updates

  1. The customer and users may access various services provided by the provider related to the software, for example to download the software and updates.

  2. The use of such services is governed by the provider's terms of service and transferred data is handled according to the provider's privacy policy. The customer asserts that they themselves and all users agree to those terms.

  3. The provider may add, remove or alter services accessible to the customer and/or users at any time, without notice. The provider may also freely add, remove or change features available in later versions of the software whenever an update is released.

6. License period

  1. The license based on this agreement starts upon the provider's provisioning of the software and ends if the customer destroys all copies of the software made under this agreement and ceases using any services described in section 5.

  2. Once the license ends, the customer loses any rights granted to them through this agreement. The customer and all users must then cease usage of the software and licensed services. If the customer or any user should still have copies or partial copies of the software when the agreement ends, they are required to immediately destroy those copies.

  3. The license granted to the customer expires automatically if the customer or one of the users violates the terms of this agreement or other parts of the contract, notwithstanding any rights of the provider.