Terms of Use

Definitions and Parties

Kreosus is a project by Evrim Ağacı. Evrim Ağacı is the largest popular science organization in Turkey. Both Kreosus and Evrim Ağacı are trademarks of TREE OF EVOLUTION LLC. TREE OF EVOLUTION LLC is a company that resides in Gainesville, Texas, USA 76240. We do not have any other locations or branches.

This document lists the Terms of Use for Kreosus. These terms are valid for the Kreosus website, the Kreosus mobile app and any other platforms that Kreosus uses.

Terms like “We”, “ours”, “us” or “the company” are used for Kreosus, Evrim Ağacı, and therefore, TREE OF EVOLUTION LLC. The use of the term “Kreosus” in this document means the website of Kreosus and all the services that are provided by us.

In this document, “content creators”are people, companies, or other legal entities (or “entities) that create content in the digital or real world. These entities include but are not limited to scientists, writers, journalists, musicians, artists, and painters.

In this document, “supporters” are any individual who uses the services of Kreosus to support creators monetarily.

Once you fill out the registration form and click on the “I agree” checkbox at the bottom of the form, this contract becomes valid between you and Kreosus. By using Kreosus, you declare that you have read, understood, and willingly agreed to the terms outlined in this document. Additionally, you declare that you agree to the Privacy Policy and other guidelines of Kreosus.

Kreosus is a platform that brings creators and their audience that are willing to support those creators together. Kreosus is a portal that facilitates the monetary transactions between creators and their supporters. To accomplish this, Kreosus website provides a technical tool to allow creators to communicate with their supporters, supporters to communicate with each other, creators to present their creations and share documents and information about their work. Kreosus does not contribute to the contents of any communication in between the creators and their supporters. Kreosus is not a side, supporter, warrantor, and does not bear any responsibility to any legal transactions or contracts between the users of Kreosus. Creators and supporters are fully responsible for all the transactions that they will conduct using Kreosus. Kreosus is not responsible for or can be held responsible by any means regarding the promises and/or creations of the creators, the quality of these creations, or the timeliness or legality of any content.

This contract document may be updated from time to time. Kreosus reserves the right to change the way its website is used; convert actions that do not require an account to actions that require a login, change, alter, or remove any or all services provided by Kreosus. If these changes will impact your use of Kreosus in a significant way, we will let you know via email before these new terms go into action. If you choose to continue using Kreosus after these changes are in action, you will be considered to have read, understood, and agreed to all the changes.

Account Creation

Supporters

In order to use Kreosus to support a content creator, you need to be at least 18 years of age or must have written permission from your parents or legal guardians if you are older than 15 years old, but younger than 18 years old. Please provide proof of permission from your parents or legal guardians before supporting a creator by emailing us. If you know someone who uses Kreosus even if they are not older than 15 years of age, please report them by emailing us.

Creators

When you register for a Kreosus account and/or when you are requesting payouts, we will ask you questions. You must answer these questions honestly and your answers must reflect the truth. If we find out that your answers are not real, we may close your account and you may never regain access to your account.

You must be at least 18 years old to register for a Kreosus Creator account to crowdfund your own creations. If you are older than 15 years old, but younger than 18 years old, you can use Kreosus for monetary purposes by obtaining written permission from your parents or legal guardians. Please provide proof of this before creating your account by emailing us.

You are fully responsible for keeping safe the information we give you (username, password, etc.) from third parties and their access to your account. If third parties gain access to your user information, Kreosus is not responsible for any damages arising from these third-party activities. If you believe your account has been stolen or has been compromised, contact us immediately.

Community Guidelines

You are fully responsible for what you do with your Kreosus account. If you do something unacceptable, illegal, or generally bad, we will remove your account. Here are some examples of unacceptable behavior for Kreosus:

• Illegal Activities: Do not do anything illegal on Kreosus and do not promote illegal activities.

• Bullying: Do not bully or harass anyone! You cannot incite violence, hate speech, or aggressive behaviors using Kreosus.

• Personal Information: Do not share personal information belonging to other people without asking their permission. You are forbidden from sharing your Kreosus supporter information in places other than Kreosus.

• Fraud: Do not cheat people. Do not mislead people. Do not engage in any fraudulent activities.

• Identity Theft: You cannot create a Kreosus account for anyone besides yourself or a company/organization that you represent. Do not allow anybody to use your Kreosus account for their own purposes.

• Username Squatting: Do not steal or reserve the usernames that are not associated with yourself or a company/organization that you represent. Do not try to sell others any username(s). We reserve the right to delete accounts and reclaim usernames at any time.

• Intellectual Property: Do not share anything that does not belong to you on Kreosus. Do not violate any copyrights and intellectual property rights.

• Spam: Do not spam people using Kreosus. Do not advertise irrelevant products or websites on Kreosus.

• Malware: Do not share any malicious software on Kreosus. Do not use such software on Kreosus.

• Kreosus Endorsements: Without our written permission, do not claim that we endorse or support your creations or products.

• Service Degredation: Do not use Kreosus to divert people from using Kreosus. Do not tamper with their use of Kreosus.

• Data Mining: Do not mine data on Kreosus, scrape bulk information from Kreosus, or share such information on any other platforms.

• Reward Theft: Do not obtain a reward from a creator and then try to sell it to third parties or distribute it without the written permission from the creator.

This is not an exhaustive list of what we consider “unacceptable” on Kreosus. We reserve the right to update this list at any time.

Supporters

Content creators may reward you or make promises to you for certain levels of support. However, it is not our goal at Kreosus to promote these rewards or promises. Our goal is to create a platform to increase the sustainability of content creation. Therefore, these rewards and promises are purely for encouragement purposes and not an integral part of Kreosus. Kreosus is not a marketing or e-commerce platform. Kreosus is not responsible for any rewards and promises made by content creators, please reach out directly to the content creator for questions and concerns related to these.

As Kreosus, we do our best to ensure the legality and accuracy of the information and content provided by the creators on our platform. However, our control is limited to the information provided to us and since it is impossible for us to check the legal background of each claim on Kreosus, we are not promising and guaranteeing any results. Therefore, Kreosus users are responsible for the legality and the accuracy of the claims of a creator before pledging monetary support to them. Kreosus is not responsible for any losses that may be incurred due to fraudulent or misleading claims by creators on the Kreosus platform. You agree to not sue Kreosus or seek legal compensation from Kreosus for such losses.

As a supporter, all you need to do is to create a Kreosus account to start supporting creators. You do not need to enter your financial information (e.g. credit card information) to create an account. This information will be asked only when you decide to support a creator.

There are two main types of support on Kreosus: One-Time payment and Monthly (Recurrent) payment. You are allowed to choose one of these two options during your pledge.

If you choose to pledge a one-time payment, the amount you choose to pledge will be transacted on that same day and the amount that is left after fees and cuts by us and our third-party providers will be added to the Kreosus balance of the creator you choose to support. You will be charged only once. After this charge, you will not be charged again unless you choose to do so and manually follow the same steps again.

If you choose to pledge monthly, the amount you choose to pledge will be transacted on that same day, regardless of the time of the month. After that, the same amount will be transacted on the first day of each month until you cancel your monthly pledge. The amount that is left after fees and cuts by us and our third-party providers will be added to the Kreosus balance of the creator you choose to support, every month. If your transaction fails on the first day of the month, we will retry two more times, once on the ninth day and once on the sixteenth day of the same month. Once your transaction is successful, no reattempts will be made for that month. If your monthly pledge fails for three consecutive times in three consecutive months, we will automatically cancel your pledge and no reattempts will be made again. You will be informed via email for these transactions.

You may cancel your pledge or change the amount you pledge to a creator at any time.

Although it is uncommon, depending on your location, some banks may charge extra fees (usually around 3% of the pledge). Please note that Kreosus will always charge the exact amount you pledge (and any tax applicable) from your bank account. Any additional charge is added by your bank, and we have no control over this fee. Please contact your bank for questions regarding this charge.

If you are living in any country that charges Value Added Tax to online transactions, you will have to select the country so the Value Added Tax can be added on your transactions. Once selected, this will be shown at your summary during the checkout process. Please note that you are responsible for correctly declaring your country by selecting the country from a drop-down menu during the transaction process. Kreosus is not responsible for identifying your location or country and you may face prosecution if you provide misleading or false information.

As Kreosus, we can process refunds only in very rare cases and under extreme circumstances. You must seek refunds from the creator and not from Kreosus.

Kreosus is not responsible for the quality, timeliness, or legality of the rewards distributed by creators. Kreosus cannot refund you if a creator fails to provide you with the reward promised. However, we are taking action to identify and remove accounts that conduct fraudulent activity on Kreosus. If you identify a fraudulent account on Kreosus, please report them here.

Content Creators

Content creators are people or other legal entities that use Kreosus to crowdfund their creations that they have already been offering. These entities usually do not make their living by the guidance of a single individual or another organization; instead, they make a living (or supplement their income) through the monetary support of many individuals who already follow these entities’ work. Kreosus does not guarantee the minimum wage standards of a creator. Kreosus is a platform where creators can supplement their income to sustain their hobbies, work, passions, etc.

Without the requirement of supporting any other creator, any individual or company that owns a Kreosus account may create one or more creator accounts or profiles. These parties can create separate creator accounts or profiles for different lines of work, or they can create an all-encompassing creator account to cover all different types of lines of work they conduct.

The sole relationship between Kreosus and the creators is the role of Kreosus to collect the monetary support the supporters pledge to the creators, store these payments for certain periods of time in the accounts of Kreosus or its business partners, pay the creators timely and periodically as long as they hit certain thresholds, and be an intermediary to the payment from a supporter to a creator.

As an intermediary, Kreosus does not own the payment made from a supporter to a creator. Therefore, if a payment does not make it to your bank account, you should not contact the supporter, but you should contact Kreosus. As Kreosus, we are working diligently to grant you access to your funds; however, your access to your funds may be delayed, limited, or prohibited at times due to conditions that are not within our control. Moreover, if we suspect that you are not following the rules outlined in this document (especially but not limited to the Community Guidelines section of this document), or due to reasons related to laws or taxation, we may delay, limit, or prohibit your access to these funds. We will promptly communicate with you if your payments are delayed or prohibited. In order to protect our creators, we may prevent some or all payments to a creator if we suspect fraud or theft; however, we do not guarantee nor can be held responsible for the reasons or goals of a supporter.

Fees

There are 3 types of fees on Kreosus:

• 1. Card processing fees (also known as “transaction fees”)
• 2. Platform fees (also known as "Kreosus fees")
• 3. Payout fees (also known as “transfer fees”)

The order of operation for these fees are as follows: Kreosus first sums the pledge amount with any tax that may have incurred due to the location of the supporter. Then the card processing fees of the third-party card processors are deducted from this sum. Then, Kreosus may take a platform fee from the remaining balance, and then the remaining amount is applied to the creator’s balance. An additional payout fee may be applied when the creator requests a payout or during automatic payouts.

The card processing companies implement a certain amount (usually (2.9%-3.9%) + $0.30, but may change depending on the processor used at the time of transaction). In order to continue our service, Kreosus has a 4% platform fee. Note that these fees apply to each transaction, separately.

In order to lower your fees, we group the payments of a supporter, if they choose to pledge monthly to multiple creators. In that case, the total pledge of that supporter is transacted in one payment and the card processing fees are processed proportional to the fraction of the pledge to each creator in that lump sum. Then, the remaining balances are transferred to each creator’s balance. Note that this is implemented to reduce the card processing fees as much as possible and it benefits our creators.

Additionally, although it is uncommon, your supporters may see a small fee added to each transaction depending on their country (usually around 3%). This fee is added by their bank and we have no power or control over this fee, and this does not affect your balance. However, if your supporters contact you about this charge, please refer them to this document or have them reach out to Kreosus directly. You can also encourage them to contact their bank for any questions that may be related to this additional fee.

Finally, once we are transferring your funds to your bank, there will be a transfer fee that will be taken out of your Kreosus balance based on the payout method selected by you in your creator profile under the “Tax & Payout Settings.” These transfer fees are also out of our control, even if we try to lower them by actively communicating with our partners.

Kreosus is not responsible for most taxation processes. Therefore, it is your responsibility to report your income to the proper organizations and branches of your respective governments. Kreosus cannot and does not offer tax consultation.

The only tax Kreosus currently collects is the Value Added Tax collected on your behalf in some countries. This tax is collected from some European Union member countries. Kreosus will pay the collected VAT to the tax office of the respective country. The amount collected is shown on the Kreosus Support Module during each transaction.

Kreosus does not allow certain creators to be on its platform. On Kreosus, you are strictly prohibited from conducting the following acts:

• Monetize sexual and violent acts committed by real people,
• Reward sexual and nude behaviors committed by your supporters,
• Create content that is prohibited by the laws of your country of residence or citizenship,
• Collect support for paramilitary organizations that operate against legal governments and states,
• Distribute your rewards on a drawing or gambling based system,
• Use content that violates the copyrights of another person or company unless you have written permission from them or are within the borders of Fair Use.

If your supporters are below 18 years of age, they need written permission from their parents or legal guardians to be able to support any content creator. It is your responsibility to collect these permissions. Any person below the age of 15 cannot open a Kreosus account.

Kreosus is not a party to any agreement between you and your supporters. If your supporters ask for a refund, we can only refund payments on very special and extremely limited cases. Contact Kreosus if you want to refund one of your supporters. You will be back charged in your next payment for the amount of refund.

The Role of Kreosus

Kreosus is a platform which brings content creators and their supporters together. Beyond this limited role, Kreosus does not track or analyze any communication or agreement between the creators and their supporters. If you encounter any content that violates our terms, please report it to us. Upon investigation, we may remove the violating content(s) from our platform and choose to punish the violation creator(s).

However, we do not take the decision of removing content lightly. We investigate the reports, verify their validity, and take our time to reach an appropriate conclusion. If need be, we may contact local and federal authorities.

In order to encourage our Kreosus creators to fully utilize our features, we provide them with an HTML code that can be added to their websites. In these websites, a Kreosus Support Module will become visible where users can see and use. In order to use Kreosus, you are not required to use this module. Creators may use the links to their Kreosus profiles to collect support. The HTML code we provide collects data using cookies in order to function properly. We use this data to improve our services and do not share this information with third parties.

We do not install or send any other software, code, script, add-on, etc. that may interfere or facilitate the use of Kreosus, except for the aforementioned HTML code. The presence of a Kreosus Support Module on a website does not mean Kreosus endorses, supports, approves or provides any type of verification of content of the website it is added on.

We are testing and experimenting on new features that we believe further the goals of Kreosus. In this process, we may add, remove, or alter features that are available on Kreosus. Sometimes we may experiment with new features that are available to only a certain portion of our users. We may test features without granting global access to those features. If we believe that these new features will alter your use of Kreosus considerably, we will communicate this with the group(s) that will be affected by this change ahead of time.

After receiving your written permission, for supporters and creators, we may provide information to other websites or services in order to verify your information, obtain advertisements, or do promotional offers. These permissions will be asked to you clearly while you are editing your profile. The information you share may include the creators you support, the total amount you pledged, the length of your Kreosus membership, the length of your pledge to a certain creator, how many supporters you have, the length of your Kreosus creator page, the total amount of support you have, etc. By choosing to use Kreosus, you are agreeing to the amount that will be shared with third parties, determining these amounts ahead of time, and once this information is delivered to these third parties you can no longer request a change in that information or hold Kreosus liable for any damage that may occur due to the use of your data by these third parties.

As Kreosus, we are taking all technologically possible precautions that are up to the current standards in order to protect you from any malware or malicious access to your accounts. For instance, we do not store credit card information on our databases. However, even after all these precautions, Kreosus cannot be held liable for data breaches. By continuing to use Kreosus, you are agreeing to not holding Kreosus liable for such breaches.

Account Termination

You can terminate your Kreosus account by editing your profile or by contacting us. You can read our Privacy Policy to learn more about what types of data will be erased and what types of data will continue to be hosted.

If we choose to do so, we may terminate your Kreosus account at any time. Moreover, we can terminate, cancel, and/or refund any pledges and payments.

These terms will be valid even after you terminate your account.

Content

We do not ask the rights of any content hosted on our platform by our creators. However, you agree to permit us to host and share any content you host on Kreosus.

By sharing content on Kreosus, you are granting us the right to share those without any royalty payments, perpetually, irreversibly, and with no boundaries, including licensing some of our content to third parties. We may recreate these content, distribute, exhibit, or create derivative products. This license is required in order for Kreosus to continue its basic services, advertise on multiple platforms and exhibit your content on Kreosus. Do not worry about us stealing or maliciously using your contents; your intellectual property is our top priority.

You cannot share anything that is copyrighted by someone else.

Supporters cannot use, distribute, sell, or create derivative products that they obtained from creators.

Contents of Kreosus

The content we create on Kreosus is protected by copyright laws. All the posts on our website, our logos, and our code are protected. We allow you to use the Kreosus logo to promote your Kreosus account.

Outside this purpose, you may not use, distribute, copy, sell, exhibit, or create derivative products of our content. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Kreosus.

Copyright and Violations

If a content is violating your copyright on Kreosus, please write to us at the following address:

TREE OF EVOLUTION LLC
145 County Road 150
Gainesville, TX 76240

Similarly, you can contact us via e-mail. You need to include the following information in your letter or e-mail:

• Electronic or physical signature of the copyright holder or their legal representative,
• A detailed description of the violated content,
• A detailed description of which part of Kreosus this content is being used (this need to be clear enough for us to find it),
• Your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and any other information that we can use to contact you,
• Written statement. In this statement, please include the following: i) A statement that demonstrates your good belief that you own the copyright to the content you claim rights to and that the content is actually protected by copyright laws, ii) a statement that declares all the information you give is true and accurate to your best knowledge, and iii) you are the person or their legal representative to take action in the case of a copyright violation.

Compensations and Damages

If we face any legal consequences, monetary losses, or debts incurred (including legal fees), you are responsible for paying these. If we are required to defend ourselves in a matter protected by this article, we retain the right to defend ourselves and you are responsible for helping us defend our case.

Operational Disclaimer

It is technically impossible to achieve 100% accessibility. As Kreosus, we are showing utmost effort to keep Kreosus accessible at all times. We are taking all the precautions and following the industry standards to keep our operations ongoing. However, especially due to maintenance, security, or capacity issues, Kreosus may be inaccessible for certain periods of time, and even indefinitely. Some other reasons that may cause this may include but are not limited to public network and communication errors, electrical outages, war, strikes, natural disasters.

By accepting these terms of service, you are agreeing to not requesting any payments due to accessibility issues. This article also covers our partners and third-party providers.

Limits of Responsibility

Kreosus is not responsible for paying any of your losses within the borders of laws. If the law forces us to pay you, the payments we will make to you will be limited to the maximum amount that was actually paid out to you. We are especially not responsible for problems arising from you not following through with your promises, not distributing rewards timely, not meeting the expectations of your supporters, or similar situations.

Additionally, we are not responsible for minor negligence that may arise from your use of your Kreosus account. If a major negligence is proven, Kreosus will only pay for the portion that is relevant to the specified major negligence.

Kreosus uses hyperlinks only to refer to other websites; therefore, Kreosus is not responsible for or can be held liable from the content in other websites. Users of our website understand that they will be out of the coverage of these terms by clicking on external links. Kreosus cannot be held liable from the losses that may arise from your use of other websites.

Kreosus will use its databases to store all the information you give to us. We will keep this information private. This does not include the legal requirements that would force us to disclose information to government authorities. Kreosus or its managers cannot be held liable from the instances in which this information is distributed to third parties without the knowledge or power of Kreosus.

Conflict Resolution

If you encounter an issue while using Kreosus, please contact us first so we can attempt to resolve the issue. Please feel free to contact us with any matter that you are having difficulty with. We will do our best to help you with these issues, but please remember that our help may be limited in some cases. However, if the issue is not resolved after our communication, we may try to resolve it by arbitration.

Arbitrations may only take place on an individual basis. No class arbitrations or other grouping of parties is allowed. By agreeing to these terms, you are waiving your right to trial by jury or to participate in a class action or representative proceeding.

This clause does not limit either party’s ability to seek injunctive or other equitable relief for disputes relating to intellectual property or proprietary data.

Governing Law

Texas law, excluding its conflict of law provisions, governs these terms and all other Kreosus policies. If a lawsuit does arise, both parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts located in Gainesville, Texas.

Other Clauses

These terms and any referenced policies are the entire agreement between you and Kreosus, and supersede all prior agreements. If any provision of these terms is held to be unenforceable, that provision will be modified to the extent necessary to enforce it. If a provision is unable to be modified, it is severed from these terms, and all other provisions remain in force. If either party fails to enforce a right provided by these terms, it does not waive the ability to enforce any rights in the future.