Version: 0.2.0 (draft) · Effective: upon publication
These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding legal agreement between you and Sazalem. "Sazalem", "we", "us" and "our" mean, jointly, SerikB LLC, a limited liability company organized under the laws of the State of California, United States of America (the "Licensor"), which owns the Sazalem brand, trademarks, platform technology and other intellectual property, and Sazalem LLP (ТОО «Сазалем»), a limited-liability partnership organized under the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan (the "Local Operator"), which acts as the local operator of the Service for users ordinarily resident in the Republic of Kazakhstan under license from the Licensor. Where these Terms allocate a function to one entity rather than both — for example, royalty payouts to Kazakhstan- resident creators are administered by the Local Operator together with «Әбырой» (see the Royalty & Payout Agreement); intellectual-property licensing and global infrastructure are operated by the Licensor — the responsible entity is identified. They govern your access to and use of the Sazalem websites, mobile applications, application programming interfaces and any related services (collectively, the "Service"). Please read them carefully. By creating an account, accessing or using the Service you confirm that you have read, understood and agreed to be bound by these Terms, our Privacy Policy and our Acceptable Use Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
Sazalem is a streaming and preservation platform dedicated to the audio heritage of Kazakhstan: songs (ән), poetry (өлең), zhyrau performances (жыр), folktales (ертегі), audiobooks, spoken word, instrumentals (домбыра, қобыз), podcasts and related works. Our mission is to preserve, catalogue and make accessible the full breadth of Kazakh audio culture.
2.1. You must be at least sixteen (16) years of age to register an account. If you are between sixteen and the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you confirm that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and consents to your acceptance of these Terms.
2.2. You agree to (a) provide accurate, current and complete information when registering and to keep it up to date; (b) safeguard your credentials and any two-factor authentication device; and (c) be solely responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.
2.3. You may not transfer, sell or assign your account to any other person without our prior written consent.
2.4. We may suspend, restrict or terminate your account, with or without notice, where we have reasonable grounds to believe that you have breached these Terms, applicable law or the rights of any third party, or where required to protect the security or integrity of the Service.
The Service supports three user tiers:
playlists and otherwise interacts with the Service in a non-creator capacity.
a Creator and is awaiting review.
approved and who has at least one release published on the Service. The "Artist" label applies to all creator categories — performers, composers (композитор), lyricists/poets (ақын), arrangers, producers, groups, labels, distributors and rights-holders.
4.1. We grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for lawful personal use in accordance with these Terms. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.
4.2. The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We may, at any time and from time to time, add, modify, suspend, limit or discontinue features of the Service, in whole or in part, without liability to you, save where prohibited by mandatory applicable law.
4.3. Some features may require a paid subscription. Subscription terms, pricing, billing and cancellation rules are set out in the relevant in-product flows and the Subscription Terms (if applicable) at the time of purchase.
5.1. You retain all ownership rights and intellectual-property rights in content you upload, post, submit or otherwise make available through the Service ("Your Content"). The license you grant us in respect of Your Content is set out in our Content License.
5.2. You represent and warrant that (a) you own or have obtained all rights, licenses and consents necessary to grant the rights described in the Content License; (b) Your Content does not infringe any intellectual-property right, right of publicity, privacy right or any other right of any third party; and (c) all metadata, royalty splits and disclosures you supply are accurate and complete.
5.3. You acknowledge that we are not obliged to monitor Your Content but may, in our discretion, screen, review or remove content that we reasonably believe violates these Terms, the Acceptable Use Policy or applicable law. Removal does not constitute a waiver of any other remedy available to us.
6.1. Royalty collection and distribution for content streamed on the Service is administered by «Әбырой» ("Abyroy"), an authors' society registered in the Republic of Kazakhstan operating as a collective-management organization. Your relationship with Abyroy with respect to royalty collection is governed by the Royalty & Payout Agreement.
6.2. The Service may display content sourced from third parties under license, public-domain status, or fair-use principles. Such content remains the property of the original rights-holders.
7.1. Where the Service is offered on a paid basis, prices are stated inclusive or exclusive of value-added tax (VAT) as indicated at the point of sale. You are responsible for any taxes that apply to your purchase under the law of your jurisdiction.
7.2. Subscription fees are non-refundable except where required by mandatory applicable law (in particular, Kazakhstan consumer-protection legislation). Refunds may be granted at our discretion in cases of manifest service failure.
7.3. We may change subscription pricing on at least thirty (30) days' written notice to subscribers. Continued use of a paid subscription following the effective date constitutes acceptance of the new pricing.
You agree to comply with the Acceptable Use Policy, which is incorporated by reference. Without limiting that policy, you must not use the Service to (a) infringe any intellectual-property, publicity, privacy or other right; (b) upload unlawful, defamatory, discriminatory, threatening or sexually exploitative content; (c) distribute malware, conduct phishing or commit fraud; (d) attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the Service or to circumvent security measures; (e) scrape, harvest or otherwise extract data from the Service except via APIs we expressly authorize; or (f) use the Service in any manner that violates Kazakhstan law or the law of any other jurisdiction in which you access the Service.
The Sazalem name, logo, trade dress, product designs, software, databases and all other materials made available by us are protected by copyright, trade-mark and other laws and are owned by us or our licensors. Except as expressly provided in these Terms, no license is granted to use any of the foregoing.
10.1. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available" and Sazalem expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express, implied or statutory, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy or uninterrupted availability.
10.2. We do not warrant that the Service will meet your requirements, that operation will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free, or that defects will be corrected.
11.1. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will Sazalem, its affiliates, officers, employees, agents or licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages, including loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill or business opportunities, arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service, whether based in contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability or any other theory, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
11.2. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, our aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid to Sazalem during the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred United States dollars (USD 100), denominated for payment in Kazakhstan tenge at the National Bank of Kazakhstan rate on the date of payment.
11.3. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes any liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law, including liability for personal injury, death caused by negligence, or fraud.
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Sazalem and its affiliates from and against any claims, damages, liabilities, losses and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with (a) your use of the Service; (b) Your Content; (c) your breach of these Terms or any representation, warranty or covenant herein; or (d) your violation of any third-party right or applicable law.
13.1. You may terminate your account at any time by following the in-product cancellation flow or by contacting support@sazalem.com. Termination of your account does not terminate licenses previously granted by you in Your Content where such termination would prejudice third-party rights or our legitimate interests; the term and survival of the Content License is set out in that document.
13.2. We may suspend or terminate your access immediately, with or without notice, if we determine that you have materially breached these Terms, applicable law or the rights of any third party.
13.3. Sections 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 and 16 survive termination of these Terms.
14.1. We may amend these Terms from time to time. The current version is always available at https://sazalem.com/legal/tos.
14.2. We will notify you of material changes by email or in-product notification at least fourteen (14) days before they take effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the amended Terms. If you do not accept the amended Terms, you must cease using the Service before the effective date.
15.1. Governing law. These Terms are governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of California, United States of America, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.
15.2. Mandatory pre-arbitration negotiation. Before commencing arbitration, the parties will attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute by direct negotiation for thirty (30) days from written notice of the dispute sent to legal@sazalem.com.
15.3. Binding arbitration. Any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms (including any question regarding their existence, validity, breach or termination) that is not resolved under §15.2 will be resolved by final and binding arbitration administered by JAMS under its Comprehensive Arbitration Rules and Procedures (or, where the amount in controversy meets the JAMS Streamlined Rules threshold, those rules), seated in San Francisco, California, United States of America, before a single arbitrator. The language of the arbitration is English. Judgment on the arbitral award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.
15.4. Class-action waiver. All claims must be brought in the parties' individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not preside over any form of representative or class proceeding.
15.5. Carve-outs. Either party may bring (a) an action for preliminary injunctive or other equitable relief in the state or federal courts located in San Francisco County, California, to protect its intellectual-property rights or confidential information, and (b) a claim in small-claims court if the claim qualifies and remains in that court.
15.6. Local mandatory law. If, and to the extent that, mandatory consumer-protection law of your country of ordinary residence prohibits arbitration or a class-action waiver as applied to you, the prohibited provisions do not apply to you, but the remainder of this section continues to apply. For users ordinarily resident in the Republic of Kazakhstan, this means that consumer disputes that cannot under Kazakh mandatory law be submitted to foreign arbitration may be brought before the competent courts of the Republic of Kazakhstan against the Local Operator only; all other disputes (including those concerning intellectual property, the platform technology and the Licensor) remain subject to §§15.1–15.4.
15.7. Equitable relief. Nothing in this section prevents a party from seeking urgent injunctive or equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect intellectual-property rights or prevent imminent and irreparable harm.
16.1. Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the Acceptable Use Policy, the Content License, the Rights Attestation, the Takedown Policy and the Royalty & Payout Agreement (collectively, the "Agreement"), constitute the entire agreement between you and Sazalem and supersede all prior or contemporaneous agreements regarding the Service.
16.2. Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect, and the invalid provision shall be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable while preserving the original intent.
16.3. No waiver. Our failure to enforce any right or provision is not a waiver of that right or provision.
16.4. Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or any rights hereunder without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of substantially all of our assets.
16.5. Notices. Notices to you may be delivered by email to your registered address or by in-product notification. Notices to us must be sent to legal@sazalem.com.
16.6. Language. These Terms are published in Kazakh, Russian and English. In the event of any inconsistency, the Kazakh-language version prevails for users resident in the Republic of Kazakhstan; for all other users, the English-language version prevails.
16.7. Force majeure. Neither party is liable for any delay or failure in performance caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, civil unrest, pandemic, sanctions or governmental action.
Contact: legal@sazalem.com · SerikB LLC (California, USA, Licensor) · Sazalem LLP / ТОО «Сазалем» (Kazakhstan, Local Operator)