Direct.me

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General Information By your continued use of this website you are agreeing to these Terms and Conditions which govern your use of the Direct.me platform These terms and conditions were updated on Saturday 28 September 2020. 1.0 About 1.1 ("Direct.me") is a platform that facilities actions between individuals and companies (each "Talent") with fans, and their fanbase. 1.2 These Terms of Service ("Terms"), govern your use of Direct.me, including any content, functionality, and services offered on or through the Website. By creating an account with Direct.me as a Fan (a “Fan Account”), you hereby accept and agree to be bound by and abide by these Terms. If you do not want to agree to these Terms, you must not access or use Direct.me nor any Premium Channels. 1.3 By using Direct.me you consent to receiving communications from us electronically, including emails and messages. You acknowledge and agree that all communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. If you wish to withdraw our consent to receiving communications from us at any time, please email support@direct.me, notifying us of your withdrawal of consent. 1.4 We do not own Talent Content on Direct.me and views expressed by Talent on Direct.me do not represent the views of Direct.me. All Talent Content transactions and interactions on Direct.me are between Talent and Fans and at no point does Direct.me become a party to any transaction or interaction between Talent and Fans. 1.5 We reserve the right at any time and without notice to: <ul> <li> 1.5.1 modify, suspend or terminate Direct.me</li> <li> 1.5.2 restrict, limit, suspend or terminate your access to Direct.me;</li> <li> 1.5.3 delete any content you post on Direct.me if in our reasonable opinion it does not comply with these Terms and/or applicable law;</li> <li> 1.5.4 monitor your use of Direct.me (including any content or message you post or broadcast on Direct.me) to verify compliance with these Terms and/or any applicable law;</li> <li> 1.5.5 investigate any suspected or alleged misuse or unlawful use of Direct.me and cooperate with law enforcement in such investigation;</li> <li> 1.5.6 disclose information about your use of Direct.me in connection with law enforcement investigation of any suspected or alleged illegal activity, or in response to a lawful court order. or</li> <li> 1.5.7 change the payment or payout processor that enables you to make or receive payments as a User.</li> </ul> 1.6 From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of Direct.me in it's entirety. 1.7 Change or redirect any username (handle) on our platform. 1.6 When selecting a username (handle) on the website you should chose an available username that represents yourself. If Direct.me feels that the username does not represent you our accounts team reserves the right to change your username. This will happen in cases where a username is picked that represents another brand or person. 2. How Direct.me Works Direct.me is a platform that allows influential people and companies to create a profile, which in turn allows them to offer various items ("Items") for sale to their Fans after they have verifed their identity. Fans are then able to purchase Items from the Talent in exchange for a monetary value set by the talent. 3. Fan Accounts 3.1 To register and create a Fan Account on Direct.me, you must provide a valid email address and password. It is a condition of your use of Direct.me that all the information you provide to Direct.me is correct, current, and complete and Direct.me may terminate your access to the service should your information be found to be incorrect. 3.2 In order to make a purchase on Direct.me, you will need to add a payment card. When adding a payment card, your card information is stored by our primary payment processor (Stripe);. As far as legally possible, Direct.me reserves the right to change the payment processors it uses at any time and without notice to you. Direct.me does not store any payment card information. 3.3 You are fully responsible for any and all activities that occur on your Fan Account and you are responsible for keeping your login details confidential and secure. You agree not to disclose these details to any other person or entity and immediately notify us at support@direct.me if you believe someone has used or is using your Fan Account without your permission or if your Fan Account has been subject to any other breach of security. You also agree to ensure that you log out of your Fan Account at the end of each session. You should use particular caution when accessing your Fan Account from a public or shared computer so that others are not able to access, view or record your password or other personal information. 3.4 Direct.me has the right to disable any user name, password, or other identifier, whether chosen by you or provided by us, at any time and at our sole discretion for any or no reason, including if, in our opinion, you have violated any provision of these Terms. 3.5 Should you wish to deactivate your Fan Account, please contact Direct.me customer support at support@direct.me to submit your deactivation request. We will deactivate your Fan Account within 10 working days after receiving your request. 4. Purchases 4.1 To purchase Items on Direct.me, you must first add a payment card to your Fan Account and complete the checkout screens assosiated. All purchases are final and non-refundable. 4.2 At the time of initial purchase Direct.me will place an authorization on your payment method for a period of 7 days to allow time for the talent to complete the purchase. 4.3 Some items require that additional information is provided within a 24 hour period of making your initial purchase, should this not happen, your order will be cancelled and authorization on the card removed. Direct.me is not responsible for any loss you incur by not completing the full required information for an itemm. 4.4 Talent have a period of 7 days to complete your order, you should not place an order that you expect to be fufilled more than 7 days into the future. 4.5 If your order is not completed by the talent within 7 days then you will not be charged. 4.6 Each item type opens up different methods of communication with the talent, due to the nature of these items, Direct.me can only make assurances to a certain degree, the details of each item types order complete state are outlined below. <ul> <li> Video Message Talent will upload a video file after you provide details to them.</li> <li> Audio Message Talent will upload a audio file after you provide details to them.</li> <li> Social Action Talent will upload a screenshot of the social action.</li> <li> Phone Call Will open messaging between talent and user, and provide outbound call facilities to the talent - All communication relating to the call must be kept within the Direct.me messaging system. Payment is for the facilitation of the communication alone, and best judgement will be used to handle any disputes. The decision of Direct.me on the outcome of any disputes is final.</li> <li> Video Call Will open messaging between talent and user - All communication relating to the call must be kept within the Direct.me messaging system. Payment is for the facilitation of the communication alone, and best judgement will be used to handle any disputes. The decision of Direct.me on the outcome of any disputes is final.</li> <li> Digital Product The file assosiated with the item will instantly be available after purchase.</li> <li> Physical Product The talent will provide a shipping number and the shipping company assosiated with your order. Direct.me can only facilitate the delivery of the tracking code, anything outside of this must be handled with the talent.</li> <li> Other In some cases Talent may offer items that do not fall into the above categories, in these situations the order placed is for the facilitation of messaging alone.</li> </ul> 4.6 Should you be unsatisfied with your purchase, you can submit a dispute to our team via the websites contact us page. 4.7 All purchases made on Direct.me are final and non-refundable. 4.8 Any purchase made on Direct.me and subsequently subject to a chargeback will result in your Fan Account being immediately and permanently excluded from Direct.me. 5. Acceptable Use 5.1 We require that all Fans respect and comply with these Terms below, at all times, when using Direct.me. 5.2 You may not: <ul> <li> 5.2.1 use Direct.me other than for your own lawful and personal use in accordance with these Terms;</li> <li> 5.2.2 impersonate us, one of our employees, another Fan, or any other person or entity or falsely state, suggest or otherwise misrepresent affiliation, endorsement, sponsorship between you and any other person or entity;</li> <li> 5.2.3 falsify account registration information, or make unauthorized use of another's information or content;</li> <li> 5.2.4 use Direct.me in any manner or for any purpose that is illegal or unlawful, including engaging in any activity that violates any right of any person or entity. </li> <li> 5.2.5 copy, reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from, any portion of Direct.me without our express written permission;</li> <li> 5.2.6 use Direct.me for the purpose of exploiting, harming, or attempting to exploit or harm minors in any way by exposing them to inappropriate content, asking for personally identifiable information, or otherwise. </li> <li> 5.2.7 transmit, or procure the sending of, any advertising or promotional material, including any “junk mail”, “chain letter”, “spam”, or any other similar solicitation;</li> <li> 5.2.8 engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone’s use or enjoyment of Direct.me, or which, as determined by us, may harm us or Fans of Direct.me or expose them to liability;</li> <li> 5.2.9 create, upload, post, display, publish or distribute Fan Content that: </li> <ul> <li> (a) is obscene, illegal, fraudulent, defamatory, libelous, hateful, discriminatory, threatening or harassing, or in any way incites violence or any of the aforementioned prohibitions;</li> <li> (b) violates another's copyright, trademark, right of privacy, right of publicity, or other property or personal right (for example, using the name, likeness, image or other identity of another without proper consent);</li> <li> (c) promotes or advertises escort services. </li> <li> (d) promotes or advertises firearms or other weapons, tobacco, drugs, or drug paraphernalia. </li> <li> (e) promotes any illegal activity, or advocates, promotes, or assists any unlawful act. </li> <li> (f) causes annoyance, inconvenience, or needless anxiety or is likely to upset, embarrass, alarm, or annoy any other person. </li> <li> (g) involves commercial activities or sales, such as contests, sweepstakes and other sales promotions, barter, or advertising. </li> <li> (h) gives the impression that it emanates from or is endorsed by us or any other person or entity, if this is not the case;</li> </ul> <li> 5.2.10 remove, erase, modify or tamper with any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notice that is contained in any content that you do not own;</li> <li> 5.2.11 use Direct.me in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the site or interfere with any other party’s use of Direct.me, including their ability to engage in real time activities through Direct.me;</li> <li> 5.2.12 decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, or otherwise attempt to discover or derive the source code of Direct.me;</li> <li> 5.2.13 interfere in any way with the operation of Direct.me or any server, network or system associated with Direct.me, including, without limitation: hacking, mail-bombing, flooding, overloading, or making "denial of service" attacks. probing, scanning or testing the vulnerability of the app or any server, network or system associated with the app. breaching or circumventing firewall, encryption, security or authentication routines. accessing information not intended for you, or accessing another Fan Account that you are not expressly authorized to access;</li> <li> 5.2.14 use Direct.me for any unauthorized purpose, including, without limitation, for purposes of building a competitive product or service, monitoring the app's availability, performance or functionality, or for any other competitive purposes;</li> <li> 5.2.15 use any automated program, tool or process (including without limitation, web crawlers, robots, bots spiders, and automated scripts) to access Direct.me or any server, network or system associated with Direct.me, or to extract, collect, harvest or gather content or information from Direct.me. or</li> <li> 5.2.16 make any other use of Direct.me that violates these Terms or any applicable law.</li> </ul> 5.3 Any content posted that is reported by another Fan or Direct.me, and that is deemed unacceptable by Direct.me, will be deleted and the Fan notified via email. Fans who repeatedly violate our Acceptable Use policy may be deactivated. If we become aware that an Direct.me Fan is underage, we will promptly deactivate that Fan’s Fan Account and delete all information and content of that Fan from Direct.me. If you are a parent or legal guardian and become aware that your minor-child has registered on Direct.me, please immediately notify us at support@direct.me. 6. License 6.1 Subject to all of the terms, conditions, limitations and restrictions contained in these Terms, we grant to you a conditional, revocable, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive and limited license to Direct.me for your own lawful and personal use only. You acknowledge and agree that the foregoing license may be revoked and terminated by us at any time and for any reason (including, without limitation, if you violate these Terms or any applicable law). Any use of Direct.me other than as expressly permitted by these Terms is strictly prohibited. All rights not expressly granted herein are reserved by us. 6.2 We do not warrant that Direct.me is compatible with all devices and operating systems. It is your sole responsibility to determine whether or not Direct.me is compatible with your device. From time to time we may make updates to Direct.me and will make such updates available through the website and/or applicable app store (Apple iTunes for iOS devices, or Google Play for Android devices). 7. DMCA 7.1 To comply with the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Title 17, United States Code) ("DMCA"), we will respond to proper notifications of claimed copyright infringement and will take appropriate action including removing or disabling access to the allegedly infringing Talent Content and, if deemed appropriate by Direct.me, terminating the account of the Talent who published the content. 7.2 To notify us of claimed copyright infringement, please contact our customer support team by email at support@direct.me. 7.3 Under the DMCA, a notification of claimed copyright infringement must include all of the following: <ul> <li> 7.3.1 a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. </li> <li> 7.3.2 identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works. </li> <li> 7.3.3 identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material. </li> <li> 7.3.4 information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted. </li> <li> 7.3.5 a statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. and </li> <li> 7.3.6 a statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.</li> </ul> 7.4 If we remove or disable access to your Content in response to a DMCA notification of claimed copyright infringement, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you, and you may make a counter-notification in writing with our Designated Agent listed above. 7.5 A DMCA counter-notification must include all of the following: <ul> <li> 7.5.1 your physical or electronic signature. </li> <li> 7.5.2 identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled. </li> <li> 7.5.3 a statement by you under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification. and your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of which you are located and that you will accept service of process from the person who filed the notice of copyright infringement or an agent of such person.</li> </ul> 7.6 If we receive a proper counter-notification from you, we will notify the party alleging copyright infringement and will reinstate your User Content that was removed or disabled within 30 business days following our receipt of your counter-notification, unless the party alleging copyright infringement notifies us first that it/he/she has filed a court action against you. 7.7 Please note that, under the DMCA, any person who knowingly makes material misrepresentations in a notification of claimed infringement or in a counter-notification may be liable for damages. 8. Links from Direct.me 8.1 If at any point Direct.me contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your convenience only. This includes links contained in advertisements, including, without limitation, banner advertisements and sponsored links. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. If you decide to access any of the third-party Membership Programs linked to Direct.me, you do so entirely at your own risk and subject to the terms and conditions of use for such Membership Programs. 9. Disclaimer of Warranties. Limitations of Liability 9.1 By using Direct.me, you acknowledge and agree as follows: 9.1.1 Direct.me and all of its services and features are provided without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim any and all warranties, express or implied, with respect to Direct.me and all of its services and features, including, and without limitation, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. We do not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, usefulness, completeness or reliability of Direct.me, or the results of your use of Direct.me. We disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by you or any other visitor to the Website, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents. We also do not warrant or guarantee that Direct.me and all of its services and features will be available at any particular time or location. that Direct.me and all of its services and features will be secure, uninterrupted, and error-free. that any defect or error will be corrected. or that Direct.me and all of its services and features will be free of viruses and other harmful components. You are responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and checkpoints to satisfy your particular requirements for anti-virus protection and accuracy of data input and output, and for maintaining a means external to our site for any reconstruction of any lost data. To the fullest extent provided by law, we will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data, or other proprietary material due to your use of Direct.me and/or any Premium Channel or any services or items obtained through Direct.me and/or any Premium Channel or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it. Your use of Direct.me and its services and features will be solely and entirely at your own risk. the foregoing does not affect any warranties that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law; 9.1.2 Direct.me does not warrant or guarantee that use of Direct.me and/or any Premium Channel will be uninterrupted or error free twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, since Direct.me may need to carry our maintenance of Direct.me and/or any Premium Channel from time to time. However, Direct.me will use its reasonable endeavors to carry out any such maintenance of Direct.me and/or any Premium Channel outside of business hours (Pacific Coast time) and will endeavor to give reasonable notice where possible, however this may not always be possible; 9.1.3 in no event shall Direct.me be liable under contract, tort, negligence, strict liability or any other legal or equitable theory, for any indirect, incidental, exemplary, special, punitive or consequential damages (including, and without limitation, loss of use, profits, data or information, or loss of business goodwill or opportunity) arising out of or related to your use of (or your inability to use) Direct.me or any of its services or features, nor shall Direct.me be held liable in the event your User Content is illegally distributed by another User, however where such distribution does occur please contact us at as we are happy to help prevent continuance of such distribution where we are reasonably able to do so. and 9.1.4 in no event shall our total and aggregate liability to you and/or others for any and all claims arising out of or related to your use of (or your inability to use) Direct.me or any of its services or features, exceed one hundred U.S. dollars ($100.00). This does not affect any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law. 9.2 Because some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages or total liability, the above limitation may not apply to you. In such case, our total and aggregate liability to you arising out of or related to your use of (or your inability to use) Direct.me or any of its services or features shall be limited to the maximum extent permitted by law or, if no amount is specified, one hundred U.S. dollars ($100.00). 10. Fan indemnification 10.1 By using Direct.me, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless us and our employees, agents, representatives, successors and assigns from and against any and all claims, demands, causes of action, actions, suits, proceedings, judgments, orders, damages, liabilities, losses, costs and expenses (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys' fees and legal costs) arising out of or related to any of the following: <ul> <li> 10.1.1 your use of Direct.me or any of its services or features;</li> <li> 10.1.2 any Talent Content created, published, or otherwise made available on Direct.me to you;</li> <li> 10.1.3 any transaction or interaction between you and any other Fan or Talent of Direct.me. and/or</li> <li> 10.1.4 your violation of these terms or any applicable law. </li> </ul> 11. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution 11.1 You and we agree that these Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of New York State (without regard to the conflict of laws provisions thereof) and that any dispute between you and us concerning Direct.me or arising out of or related to these Terms shall be resolved exclusively in the courts of New York State. 11.2 Except where prohibited by applicable law, any claim or cause of action by you concerning Direct.me or arising out of or related to these Terms must be filed within one year after such claim or cause of action arose, or be forever barred. 12. Waiver and Severability 12.1 No waiver of any term or condition set out in these Terms shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or a waiver of any other term or condition, and any failure to assert a right or provision under these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. 12.2 If any provision of these Terms is held by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be eliminated or limited to the minimum extent such that the remaining provisions of the Terms will continue in full force and effect. 13. Entire Agreement 13.1 The Terms constitute the sole and entire agreement between you and us regarding Direct.me and supersede all prior and contemporaneous understandings, agreements, representations, and warranties, both written and oral, regarding the Website. 14. Contact If you have any questions, comments, complaints or concerns about Direct.me, please contact our support team at support@direct.me. 15. General 15.1 From time to time, a user of Direct.me ("Fans") will make purchases on your profile for a range of items. Orders should be compleated in a tiely manner, however if a period of 7 days or more passes, the order will be cancelled and the funds returned to the user. 15.2 You may decline an order by clicking the "reject" button on any order page, at your discretion 15.3 If you accept a request, you agree to complete the reuqirements to complete the order. 15.4 Direct.me retains the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel any request from a Fan. 15.4 Direct.me retains the right, to remove any item you have listed for sale at any time. 15.5 Direct.me will make No payment to you for any rejected, cancelled, or unfulfilled Direct.me Orders. 15.6 If you complete an order but do not follow the general directions and requests of the User, or fully fufil the outlined details of the item, we will discuss with you an appropriate adjustment of the payment made to you. 15.6 Your interactions with third parties, including Fans, on or through Direct.me, are solely between you and the third party. however, Direct.me may, at its sole discretion, intercede in any dispute and you will reasonably cooperate with Direct.me if it does so. You acknowledge and agree that Direct.me will not be responsible for any damages, losses, costs, expenses, or liabilities incurred as the result of such interactions 16. Payouts 16.1 You will receive a non negotiable 75% payout, minus 30c for orders placed on your Direct.me profile. 16.2 Payouts are made via Stripe, failure to provide stripe with required information will result in us being unabe to process payments through your profiile. 16.3 Should information not be provided to stripe for a period of 15 days, Direct.me will place your account on a mandatory break in which your profile will no longer receive orders. 16.3 Payments are held for a period of 7 days after compleation of an order, at which point payment will be made to you on the following Friday, barring public holidays. 17. Direct.me Profile The following information is required in order for your Direct.me account to be made public; 17.1 Your email address (which will be verified) 17.1 Your full name 17.2 A short bio about yourself. 17.3 A photo avatar 17.4 A short video introduction for your profile, no shorter than 15 seconds and must include that you are now using Direct.me By creating a Direct.me talent profile you are agreeing that; 17.1 Your profile is genuine and you are the person that you are assosiatig with the account. 17.2 You are over the age of 18. 17.2.1 Talent accounts may be created for those who are under 18 years of age only through a parent or legal guardian. By registering the legal guardian represents and warrants that: (1) They are the parent or legal guardian of the Talent User and agree to the terms outlined in this page. (2) neither the parent or Talent User is barred from using our Site under the laws of the United States, the place of residence of the legal guardian, or Talent User, or any other applicable jurisdiction. (3) They are responsible for complying with all applicable laws and regulations relating to Talent User’s participation on Direct.me under the laws of the United States, the place of residence of the legal guardian, or Talent User, or any other applicable jurisdiction. and will fully indemnify Direct.me for any failure to do so. 17.3 Direct.me may use any content published on or through your Talent Account can be used by Direct.me at no cost for any purpose. 18. License Grant to Fan: You hereby grant to the Fan and the Recipient of the Direct.me order content a non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, worldwide, sublicensable, and perpetual license to use, reproduce, distribute, and publicly display the content provided in their Direct.me order, in each case, solely in accordance with the Site Terms of Service, in any and all media, whether now known or hereafter invented (including social media channels and third party websites and platforms). 19. License Grant to Direct.me: Direct.me allows you to upload, submit, store, send, transmit, approve, and receive content and data, (collectively, “Talent Content”). When you upload, submit, store, send, transmit approve, or receive Talent Content to or through our Site, you grant to us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, unlimited, worldwide, sublicensable (through multiple tiers of sublicenses), perpetual, and irrevocable license in any and all manner and media, whether now known or hereinafter invented (including social media channels and third party websites and platforms), to reproduce, license, distribute, modify, adapt, publicly perform, publicly display, create derivative works of (for example, translations, adaptations, or other changes we make so that Talent Content works better with our Site or otherwise), and to use your Talent Content for the purposes of operating and providing our Site, to develop and improve our products and services, and to advertise, market, and promote our Site, products, and services, and you agree that such Talent Content may, in Direct.me's sole discretion, be used, including performed or displayed, in connection with any other elements, materials, copyrights, rights of publicity or copyrighted materials. You agree that we may display advertising with or in connection with your Talent Content. You further acknowledge and agree that Direct.me has no obligation to you in connection with any advertising displayed on or in connection with our Site (including no obligation to share any revenue received by Direct.me as a result of any such advertising). 20. Content Statements: By publishing content and completing orders on Direct.me, you agree: You own all rights in and to your Talent Content and Feedback and that you have the right to grant the rights described in these Terms; you have paid and will pay in full any fees, royalties, or other payments that are due or may become due in connection with any use of your Talent Content and Feedback by us, Users, or third parties (including Recipients) as described in these Terms. Your agreement to these Terms and the provision of any services by you does not violate any agreement that you may have with any third party. You will keep all messaging communicaiton relating to the orders within the Direct.me messaging system, 21. Other Terms: 21.1 If you are or may become subject to NCAA rules and regulations or those of any other association, group, authority or organization, you represent and warrant that you have checked the rules and regulations to verify and confirm that your participation on our Site does not or will not affect your current or future eligibility with respect to any such association, group, authority or organization. 21.2 You have not been prohibited from using or accessing any aspect of our Site by us or under any applicable law or regulation. 21.3 IF YOU ARE A CALIFORNIA RESIDENT, YOU HEREBY WAIVE CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE SECTION 1542 (AND ANY OTHER SIMILAR APPLICABLE STATE STATUTE), WHICH PROVIDES: A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS THAT THE CREDITOR OR RELEASING PARTY DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS OR HER FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE AND THAT, IF KNOWN BY HIM OR HER WOULD HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS OR HER SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR OR RELEASED PARTY. 21.4 You and Direct.me agree and declare that these Terms create an independent contractor relationship and it is the parties’ express intent that their relationship be interpreted and held to be that of independent contractor for all purposes. You acknowledge and agree that you are not a joint venturer, franchisee, partner, agent, or employee of Direct.me, and will not represent yourself as such. You are solely and exclusively responsible for determining the manner, method, details, and means of your performance under these Terms. We have no right to, and will not, control the manner or determine the method of accomplishing your performance. You represent and warrant that as between Direct.me and you, you assume sole liability for and will pay or cause to be paid all applicable contributions, payments, taxes, and deductions for Social Security, retirement benefits, unemployment insurance, and annuities, pension or welfare fund payments required by law or any labor union, and all withholding taxes, or income taxes, and make any reports required as a result of participation on our Site under these Terms. 21.5 You will use your own equipment to perform your obligations under these Terms. You are solely responsible for making any disclosure required by any applicable law, regulation, court order or any agreement you may have with any third parties to any person or entity regarding your performance under these Terms. 21.6 Your relationship with Direct.me is non-exclusive, meaning that you can provide similar services to third parties and that we can and do engage third parties to provide similar services to those contemplated by these Terms. 22. Referral Program 22.1 Every user with a Direct.me account has a unique referral URL that allows users to earn income from any other user who signs up via their referral link and generates revenue from their profile, this can be found by visiting http://direct.me/invite. 22.2 For a user to be successfully added as another user's referral, that user must sign up to Direct.me via the reffering users unique referral URL. In no event will Direct.me be liable to add a user as a referral if that user has not signed up via the correct referral link. 22.3 Direct.me pays 5% (Unless otherwise agreed in writing) of the total income earned by the reffered user after transation fees (currently 2.9% + 30c). 22.4 The referal fee is paid from the share that Direct.me retains from the transaction and does not effect the reffered user. 22.5 Referals are paid out automatically everytime your balance exceeds $100.00 and then processed via our standard payout process using Stripe. Referal earningss can not be cashed out with a balance below $100.00. 22.5 Referal payouts are subject to standard transaction fees.