Terms of Service
1. Acceptance and Eligibility
By accessing or using PHOTOHAUS, you agree to these Terms and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use PHOTOHAUS.
- Browsing: You must be at least 13 years old to access or browse PHOTOHAUS. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may browse PHOTOHAUS only with permission and supervision from a parent or legal guardian.
- Transacting (18+): You must be at least 18 years old, and have the legal capacity to enter into binding contracts, in order to (a) register as a seller or creator, (b) upload content for sale or licensing, (c) purchase or license content, (d) provide payout, bank, or tax information, or (e) receive payouts. We may require proof of age or identity before enabling selling, purchasing, or payout features, and we may suspend these features and withhold payouts if eligibility is in doubt.
- You may not use PHOTOHAUS if you are barred by applicable law or U.S. sanctions or export-control restrictions, or if you are located in, or ordinarily resident in, a country or region subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions.
If you accept these Terms on behalf of a company or other entity, you represent that you are authorized to bind that entity, and “you” includes that entity.
2. U.S. Operator
PHOTOHAUS is operated by SAMCHEONGHAUS Inc., a Delaware corporation. The website is photohausworld.com. References to “PHOTOHAUS,” “we,” “us,” or “our” mean SAMCHEONGHAUS Inc. and the PHOTOHAUS service.
Business address: [Registered Agent / Business Street Address], Delaware, USA · Contact: photohausworld@gmail.com
3. Accounts
- Login is based on your email address and password.
- You must provide accurate information and keep it updated.
- You are responsible for protecting your account credentials and for all activity under your account.
- We may suspend or terminate accounts for security risk, fraud, infringement (including under our repeat-infringer policy in Section 11), chargeback abuse, eligibility failure, policy violations, or legal reasons.
- We record the date, time, IP address, and Terms version associated with your acceptance of these Terms as evidence of agreement.
4. Marketplace Role
PHOTOHAUS is a platform for discovering, displaying, licensing, selling, and purchasing photographs and related visual content. Unless expressly stated otherwise in a written contract or invoice, PHOTOHAUS acts as a marketplace/platform operator and not as the author, creator, owner, publisher, legal representative, or guarantor of user-uploaded content. Any license to user-uploaded content is granted by the uploading seller/creator, and the sale or license contract for that content is between the seller and the buyer; PHOTOHAUS facilitates the transaction as a platform.
PHOTOHAUS may review, approve, reject, remove, suspend, watermark, categorize, or promote content for platform operation. Any such review is limited to quality, formatting, category fit, and policy screening for platform purposes only. It is not a legal clearance review, does not verify ownership, releases, or rights, does not transfer legal responsibility for the content to PHOTOHAUS, and does not mean PHOTOHAUS guarantees that the content is non-infringing or fully cleared for any use.
We do not guarantee that uploaded content will be approved, displayed, sold, ranked, promoted, or continuously available.
5. Seller / Creator Responsibility, Warranties, and Rights Disputes
When you upload content, you, as the uploading seller/creator, are solely responsible for the content, metadata, captions, tags, releases, permissions, and any rights claims connected to that content. To the maximum extent permitted by law, PHOTOHAUS is not responsible for intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, model-release, property-release, trademark, copyright, contractual, moral-rights, or other rights disputes arising from content uploaded by users.
When you upload content, you represent and warrant that:
- You created the content or have all rights necessary to upload, display, license, and sell it through PHOTOHAUS.
- The content does not infringe copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, moral rights, contractual rights, property rights, trade dress, design rights, or other rights of any person or entity in any country.
- You have obtained all required model releases, property releases, location permissions, brand permissions, agency/client permissions, and other consents where legally or commercially necessary, and you will provide copies of such releases to PHOTOHAUS upon request. Content offered for commercial-use licensing that depicts identifiable people or private property may be required to have valid releases on file before such licensing is enabled.
- The content and metadata are accurate and not misleading, unlawful, harmful, or deceptive.
- You will not upload stolen, scraped, copied, infringing, unauthorized, confidential, restricted, or unlawfully obtained content.
- You will promptly notify PHOTOHAUS if you become aware of any claim, dispute, restriction, takedown request, or rights problem related to your uploaded content.
If any third party brings a claim or dispute relating to your uploaded content, you are responsible for responding to and resolving that claim. PHOTOHAUS may remove or disable the content, withhold or reverse payouts, preserve related records, disclose relevant account or transaction information where legally appropriate, and cooperate with lawful requests. These actions do not make PHOTOHAUS responsible for the underlying rights dispute.
6. License You Grant to PHOTOHAUS
You retain ownership of your content. By uploading content, you grant PHOTOHAUS a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, resize, crop, watermark, display, promote, review, transmit, distribute previews, and otherwise operate and market the PHOTOHAUS service in connection with your content. This license continues for a reasonable period after removal solely as needed for backups, legal compliance, dispute records, and completed transactions.
7. Buyer License and Restrictions
Unless a separate written license or invoice states otherwise, purchased content is licensed on a non-exclusive, non-transferable basis for ordinary editorial, presentation, website, social media, design, internal business, and marketing uses.
Buyers may not:
- Resell, sublicense, redistribute, or make files available as stock content, templates, datasets, NFT collections, or downloadable libraries.
- Use content in unlawful, defamatory, pornographic, misleading, political endorsement, sensitive, discriminatory, or exploitative contexts.
- Use content in a way that implies endorsement by a person, brand, property owner, or creator without appropriate permission.
- Remove copyright notices or watermarks from preview files.
- Use content for AI training, dataset creation, biometric identification, facial recognition, model evaluation, or similar machine-learning purposes unless expressly licensed in writing.
Buyers are solely responsible for evaluating whether their intended use requires additional releases, permissions, or clearances (for example, uses involving identifiable people, private property, trademarks, or sensitive subjects), and for obtaining them. Exclusive, merchandise, broadcast, print-run-limited, advertising campaign, sensitive-use, or AI-related licenses require a separate written agreement.
8. AI Training and Dataset Restriction
PHOTOHAUS content, previews, metadata, and purchased files may not be used to train, fine-tune, validate, benchmark, develop, or improve AI, machine learning, computer vision, image generation, or biometric systems unless PHOTOHAUS and the applicable rights holder expressly agree in writing.
9. Payments, Purchase Inquiries, Seller Payouts, and Tax Documentation
PHOTOHAUS may operate through purchase inquiries, invoices, offline payment, bank transfer, Wise, PayPal, or third-party processors such as Stripe if enabled. Prices, payment methods, fees, and payout schedules may change during beta testing.
- Sellers must provide accurate payout information.
- Tax documentation: Before receiving payouts, sellers may be required to submit applicable tax documentation, including IRS Form W-9 (U.S. persons) or Form W-8BEN / W-8BEN-E (non-U.S. persons). We may withhold payouts until valid documentation is received, may apply U.S. tax withholding on U.S.-source royalty or license income where required by law or treaty, and may file information returns (such as Form 1099 series) where required.
- Sellers remain responsible for their own income tax reporting and legal compliance in their country of residence; nothing in these Terms transfers a seller's tax obligations to PHOTOHAUS.
- We may withhold, delay, offset, or adjust payouts for refunds, chargebacks, fraud, disputes, sanctions screening, identity or age verification, infringement claims, accounting requirements, or legal obligations.
- Payment processor fees, bank fees, currency conversion fees, withholding, or other third-party costs may be deducted where applicable.
10. Refunds and Digital Delivery
Because digital image files may be delivered or made available immediately, completed purchases are generally non-refundable unless required by law or expressly approved by PHOTOHAUS. If a file is defective, unavailable, or materially different from the agreed purchase, contact us for review.
11. Copyright Complaints / DMCA, Counter-Notices, and Repeat Infringers
PHOTOHAUS respects intellectual property rights and complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512). Our designated agent for receiving copyright infringement notices, registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, is:
PHOTOHAUS Copyright Agent, SAMCHEONGHAUS Inc.
Address: [Registered Agent / Business Street Address], Delaware, USA
Phone: [+1-XXX-XXX-XXXX]
Email: photohausworld@gmail.com
(a) Infringement notice. A copyright notice must include:
- Your physical or electronic signature (or that of a person authorized to act for the rights owner).
- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed.
- Identification of the allegedly infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to locate it (e.g., URL or photo ID).
- Your contact information (name, address, telephone number, email).
- A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf.
Upon receiving a valid notice, we will expeditiously remove or disable access to the identified material and notify the uploader.
(b) Counter-notice. If your content was removed and you believe the removal was a mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notice to the same designated agent including:
- Your physical or electronic signature.
- Identification of the removed material and its location before removal.
- A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification.
- Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the U.S. federal district court for your judicial district (or, if outside the United States, the U.S. federal district courts in Delaware), and that you will accept service of process from the person who filed the original notice or their agent.
If we receive a valid counter-notice, we will forward it to the original complainant. Unless the complainant notifies us that they have filed a court action seeking to restrain the alleged infringement, we may restore the removed material in not less than 10 and not more than 14 business days after receiving the counter-notice.
(c) Misrepresentation. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that material was removed by mistake, may be liable for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees.
(d) Repeat-infringer policy. PHOTOHAUS has adopted and reasonably implements a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who are repeat infringers. As a general guideline, an account that accumulates multiple confirmed infringement notices (for example, three or more valid, uncontested or upheld notices within a 12-month period) will be terminated, and associated unpaid payouts may be withheld pending resolution of claims. We keep records of notices, counter-notices, strikes, and terminations. We may also terminate accounts immediately for blatant infringement (e.g., uploading obviously stolen professional content) without waiting for multiple notices.
Rights claims regarding user-uploaded content are primarily claims against the user who uploaded or supplied that content. PHOTOHAUS may facilitate notice, takedown, record preservation, account review, payout hold, or reasonable communication, but PHOTOHAUS does not assume responsibility for the uploader's infringement, missing release, unauthorized upload, or other rights violation to the maximum extent permitted by law.
12. Prohibited Content and Conduct
- No illegal, stolen, infringing, deceptive, defamatory, harassing, hateful, extremist, exploitative, or privacy-violating content.
- No sexual exploitation, abuse imagery, non-consensual intimate imagery, or unsafe content involving minors.
- No malware, scraping, unauthorized access, spam, fake accounts, ranking manipulation, or security bypassing.
- No use of PHOTOHAUS content or data to build competing stock libraries, datasets, or AI systems without written permission.
- No use of the service in violation of U.S. sanctions, export controls, anti-money-laundering rules, or other applicable law.
13. Review, Moderation, and Removal
PHOTOHAUS may review, approve, reject, edit display metadata, demote, remove, watermark, disable, restrict, or delete content at any time for legal, safety, quality, business, technical, or policy reasons. We are not obligated to monitor all content, but may take action when we become aware of potential violations. Such voluntary, good-faith moderation does not create a duty to monitor and does not make PHOTOHAUS the publisher or speaker of user-uploaded content.
14. Disclaimers
Beta period. PHOTOHAUS is currently offered as a beta service for testing and evaluation. During the beta period: (a) features, designs, prices, fees, payout schedules, content categories, and policies may be changed, suspended, or discontinued at any time; (b) the service may be interrupted, modified, restricted, or taken offline without notice; (c) accounts, content, listings, records, and data created during the beta may be modified, migrated, reset, or deleted — we will use reasonable efforts to give advance notice before deleting seller content or transaction records, but we do not guarantee continuity of beta-period data; and (d) nothing on the website is a commitment that any beta feature will become a permanent feature. You should keep your own copies of any content you upload during the beta. If you provide feedback, suggestions, ideas, or bug reports, you grant PHOTOHAUS a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use them for any purpose without restriction or compensation, and you agree they are non-confidential.
PHOTOHAUS IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
We do not guarantee uninterrupted service, error-free operation, sales volume, buyer demand, search visibility, ranking, compatibility, or that any content will meet a buyer's needs. PHOTOHAUS does not guarantee that user-uploaded content is original, non-infringing, free of third-party rights, or cleared for every commercial, editorial, territorial, cultural, brand, model, property, or sensitive use. Users are responsible for evaluating whether a license, model release, property release, permission, or additional clearance is required for their intended use.
15. Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, PHOTOHAUS and SAMCHEONGHAUS Inc. will not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive, exemplary, lost profit, lost data, business interruption, reputational, or similar damages, including damages arising from user-uploaded content, alleged infringement, missing releases, takedown actions, account suspension, payout holds, buyer use, seller misuse, or third-party claims. Our aggregate liability for any claim will not exceed the greater of the amount paid to PHOTOHAUS for the specific transaction giving rise to the claim or USD 100.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages. In those jurisdictions, the exclusions and limitations above apply only to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, and you may have additional rights. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law, including liability for fraud, willful misconduct, or gross negligence where such limitation is prohibited.
16. Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless SAMCHEONGHAUS Inc., PHOTOHAUS, and their officers, directors, employees, contractors, partners, affiliates, successors, service providers, and agents from and against any claims, demands, damages, losses, liabilities, settlements, penalties, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising from or related to your uploaded content, your metadata or statements, your sale or licensing activity, your purchase or use of content, your violation of these Terms, your violation of law, or your actual or alleged infringement or misappropriation of any third-party right.
For sellers/creators, this indemnity specifically includes claims involving copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, moral rights, model releases, property releases, location permissions, agency/client permissions, confidential information, unauthorized uploads, and disputes brought in or from any country. We may assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification, in which case you agree to cooperate with our defense.
17. Binding Arbitration and Class Action Waiver
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT REQUIRES YOU AND PHOTOHAUS TO RESOLVE MOST DISPUTES THROUGH BINDING INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND WAIVES THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND TO PARTICIPATE IN CLASS ACTIONS.
(a) Informal resolution first. Before starting arbitration or any permitted court action, the party raising a dispute must send a written notice describing the dispute and the requested relief to photohausworld@gmail.com (or, for notices from us, to your registered email). The parties will attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute within 60 days of the notice. Statutes of limitation are tolled during this period.
(b) Agreement to arbitrate. Except as stated in subsection (d), you and SAMCHEONGHAUS Inc. agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms, PHOTOHAUS, user-uploaded content, purchases, licenses, payouts, takedowns, or account actions will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules (or Commercial Arbitration Rules for business users), as modified by these Terms. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this Section. The arbitrator's award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.
(c) Procedure. Arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator, in English, and may proceed by videoconference, telephone, or written submissions; any in-person hearing will take place in Delaware, USA, or, for consumers, in the county of your residence if the applicable rules so require. Fees will be allocated under the applicable AAA rules; for consumer claims, we will pay arbitration fees beyond those the consumer rules require you to pay, unless the arbitrator finds the claim frivolous.
(d) Exceptions. Either party may (1) bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies, and (2) seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to protect intellectual property rights, confidential information, or to prevent unauthorized access, scraping, or abuse of the service, without first arbitrating.
(e) Class action and jury waiver. ALL DISPUTES MUST BE BROUGHT IN THE PARTIES' INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE CLAIMS OR PRESIDE OVER ANY FORM OF REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. YOU AND PHOTOHAUS EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY. If the class action waiver in this subsection is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, then this entire arbitration agreement (Section 17, other than this sentence and subsection (g)) shall not apply to that claim, which shall instead proceed in the courts identified in Section 18.
(f) 30-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending an email to photohausworld@gmail.com with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out" within 30 days after you first accept these Terms, stating your name, account email, and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out of arbitration does not affect any other part of these Terms.
(g) Survival and changes. This Section survives termination of your account. Changes to this Section will not apply to disputes that arose, or notices of dispute that were received, before the change became effective.
18. Governing Law, International Disputes, and U.S. Forum
These Terms, PHOTOHAUS operations, and any dispute arising from or relating to PHOTOHAUS are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs Section 17.
This Delaware governing-law provision applies regardless of the user's country of residence, the country where content was uploaded, viewed, downloaded, purchased, licensed, or used, the country where the subject of the photo is located, or the country where an intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, model-release, property-release, contractual, or other rights claim is asserted, except where a non-waivable mandatory law of your country or state of residence provides otherwise.
For disputes not subject to arbitration under Section 17 (including claims for which you have validly opted out, claims excepted under Section 17(d), and claims for which the arbitration agreement is found unenforceable), and subject to any non-waivable consumer rights or mandatory local law, the state or federal courts located in Delaware, United States will have exclusive jurisdiction and venue, and each party consents to personal jurisdiction there.
Before filing any claim, you agree to follow the informal resolution process in Section 17(a).
19. Changes and Contact
We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will provide reasonable advance notice — for example, by email to your registered address and/or a prominent notice on PHOTOHAUS — at least 14 days before the changes take effect, and we will update the "Last updated" date and version number above. Changes do not apply retroactively. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using PHOTOHAUS before the effective date and may close your account; your continued use of PHOTOHAUS after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. Changes to Section 17 (arbitration) are further limited by Section 17(g).
SAMCHEONGHAUS Inc.
[Registered Agent / Business Street Address], Delaware, USA
Legal contact: photohausworld@gmail.com
Copyright / DMCA contact: photohausworld@gmail.com
These Terms are a practical beta operating draft for a U.S.-operated Delaware corporation and should be reviewed by qualified U.S. counsel before full commercial launch, especially before enabling Stripe, automated seller payouts, or large-scale international sales. The DMCA designated-agent information above must match the agent registered with the U.S. Copyright Office at all times.