CODESCIENCE NETWORK TECHNOLOGY LIMITED (registered in Hong Kong) (hereinafter referred to as "OKNovel", "we", "our") provides a platform (as defined below) for writers and publishers to upload, distribute, and monetize various literary works ("works" or "collections") and to authorize the use of these works through other platforms. These terms of use, along with all referenced documents and all other operational rules, policies, and procedures that OKNovel may publish from time to time, govern the relationship between OKNovel and users ("users", "you") concerning the OKNovel platform located at the website https://www.codescie.com/, including all subdomains and related websites (collectively referred to as the "Site"), the OKNovel mobile application, including the Android mobile application (the "App"), all other platforms for accessing, publishing, or distributing content, and all related services, features, or content provided through any of the aforementioned platforms (collectively referred to as the "Services") (collectively referred to as the "Platform"). These terms constitute a legally binding agreement between OKNovel and you.
By accessing or using the Platform, you acknowledge that you unconditionally accept these terms and agree to fully comply with them. Please read these terms carefully before using the Platform. If you do not agree with these terms, do not use the Platform, and you do not have permission to access, view, or otherwise use the Platform.
The Platform may contain links or embedded third-party content that OKNovel has not reviewed, including but not limited to other websites and third-party services, for the convenience of visitors, advertising purposes, or other similar features related to OKNovel's business. The linking or embedding of third-party content by OKNovel does not imply endorsement or approval of any goods, services, products, or other content provided by such third parties. OKNovel is not responsible for any third-party content linked or embedded in the Platform, and expressly disclaims any responsibility for any third-party content, including but not limited to the accuracy of information found on any third-party website or the quality of goods or services provided.
OKNovel may add, change, or remove any part of these terms of use at any time without notice. Changes to these terms of use or any terms posted on this website will take effect upon publication. Continued use of this website after any changes signifies your acceptance of those changes. OKNovel may at any time add, change, terminate, remove, or suspend any other content posted on this website, including works described or displayed on this website, temporarily or permanently, without further notice and without liability.
Thank you for using OKNovel (hereinafter referred to as "the App"). We value your privacy and want you to understand how we collect, use, and protect your personal information.
1. User License
1.1 Subject to your full compliance with the terms and to the extent permitted by law, OKNovel grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the application and the services it provides solely for your access to works, using the platform, and for other purposes expressly stated in this agreement.
1.2 For the avoidance of doubt, these terms do not transfer our or any third party's intellectual property rights to you, and all related rights, ownership, and interests will remain with the applicable owner.
2. Registration and Account
2.1 Creating an Account: You may access and use the service without registering. You may also create your personal account on the service. During registration, you may be required to provide us with some information about yourself, such as your email address or other contact information. You agree that the information you provide to us is accurate, and you will always keep it accurate and up to date.
2.2 Account Security: You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and password and for restricting access to your account by others. You agree to be responsible for all purchases and other activities that occur under your account.
2.3 Account Cancellation: You may choose to cancel your account at any time; however, you will lose access to or rights to use all or part of the content on the platform.
2.4 Account Management Rights: OKNovel has the right to disable, suspend, or terminate your account at any time for any reason, especially if you fail to comply with the relevant terms.
3. Content Policy
3.1 Our content policy ("Content Policy") sets forth the terms under which OKNovel uses content uploaded to the platform by writers and publishers (all works on OKNovel come from authorization by [NovelSnack]). Users are responsible for their uploaded content, which must not infringe on the rights of others or violate the law. OKNovel reserves the right to delete or restrict access to content that violates the policy and routinely reviews content to ensure compliance.
3.2 For avoidance of doubt, all rights not expressly granted to OKNovel in this article are reserved to you, and OKNovel does not claim any ownership of your content.
4. User Content
4.1 In OKNovel, user comments must adhere to behavioral guidelines, and malicious content or comments infringing on the rights of others are prohibited. OKNovel reserves the right to review and delete inappropriate comments, and users are responsible for the truthfulness and legality of their comment content. Comments posted by users may be used by OKNovel for use and promotion within the platform, while OKNovel reserves the right to modify the service terms at any time, following the privacy policy to protect user information.
4.2 Comments must not wholly or partially contain or reflect the following content: (a) infringing, violating, or misappropriating any third party's rights, including any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral rights, privacy rights, publicity rights, or any other intellectual property or proprietary rights; (b) defaming, slandering, falsely accusing, or violating another's privacy, publicity, or other property rights; (c) any other policies or guidelines of OKNovel; your user content is subject to this; (d) causing OKNovel to violate any laws or regulations.
4.3 Discovering comments that violate any of the above provisions or agreement content may result in the termination or suspension of your account, or we may unilaterally delete such comments from the platform without notice.
4.4 Users can read novels and complete various tasks in OKNovel to earn points. OKNovel will adjust the number of points earned by users based on the operational situation of the platform.
5. User Behavior Restrictions
5.1 Unless prohibited by applicable law, you shall not: (a) copy, distribute, publicly display, or publicly perform the service; (b) modify the service; (c) interfere with or circumvent any features of the service, including any security or access control mechanisms. If applicable law prohibits you from using the services, you must not use the service.
5.2 You shall not in any way change or modify the platform, nor shall you use any other technologies or means to access the platform unless authorized by OKNovel, including but not limited to not using robots, crawlers, or other automated means to access the platform.
6. Payment Terms
6.1 Accessing the platform or certain service features may require you to pay a fee. Before you pay any fees, you will have the opportunity to review and accept the fees that will be charged to you. All fees are quoted in U.S. dollars and are non-refundable.
6.2 OKNovel reserves the right to determine pricing for services. OKNovel will make reasonable efforts to keep pricing information posted on the website current. We encourage you to regularly check our website for current pricing information.
6.3 OKNovel will charge your designated payment method at the time of purchase. You authorize OKNovel to charge your order's total amount and any service levels you choose under these terms or as provided by the company to that payment method. If you pay any fees by credit card, OKNovel may seek to pre-authorize your credit card account before you purchase to verify that the credit card is valid and that there are sufficient funds or credit available for the payment of your purchase. Payment processing services are provided by a third party for your purchases (e.g., Apple In-App Purchases, Google Play Payments, PayPal Payments).
6.4 All purchases may be subject to taxes and other fees, including but not limited to foreign exchange fees or location-based price differences (e.g., exchange rates). We may calculate the taxes we charge you based on the information provided through your account or at the time of purchase.
6.5 If such products or services involve automatic, regular, or subscription-based charges, you agree (in accordance with applicable laws and regulations):
(1) Such purchases or payments are generally made in advance by you;
(2) You authorize us to:
(a) Store information about your chosen payment method (for example: credit card information) in our system;
(b) Charge your chosen payment method according to the time period you select or notify us of.
(3) If any payment made through your chosen payment method is refused, declined, or unpaid for any reason:
(a) We may not provide you with related services or suspend the provision of related services until payment is properly processed; and
(b) You are responsible for any fees, costs, expenses, or other amounts arising from that refusal, decline, or return (we may automatically charge you for such amounts); and
(4) We will provide you with further instructions in OKNovel, informing you how to update or cancel related payment methods.
According to mandatory applicable laws and regulations, or as stated in these terms or specific items or services, we are not required under any circumstances to provide refunds for any amounts you have paid to us (for both used or unused items or services).
You acknowledge that, in compliance with the policies of the Apple App Store and Google Play, we reserve the right to change our terms in whole or in part, or adjust the pricing and availability of our services or any of its components at our sole discretion. Whether permanent or temporary, we do not provide price protection or refunds in the event of price adjustments or promotional offers.
If you believe we have erroneously charged you, you must contact us within 30 days of the relevant charge date, pursuant to applicable laws and regulations; no refunds for erroneous charges will be provided after this 30-day period.
Prior to VIP service activation or auto-renewal enrollment, please review the OKNovel Subscription Service Agreement.
7. More Services
7.1 Suspension or Termination of Your Access to OKNovel Services
We reserve the right to disable your account at any time, including but not limited to your failure to comply with any provisions of these terms, or if activities on your account may, in our sole judgment, harm or affect the service, violate or infringe any third party rights, or violate any applicable laws or regulations. Your account name and other identifiers you adopt in OKNovel remain our property, and once your account is terminated or deactivated for any reason, we may disable, reclaim, and reuse these identifiers.
7.2 Violation Handling
a. If the OKNovel platform discovers or receives reports or complaints of a user violating this agreement, the OKNovel platform reserves the right to delete or block relevant content at any time without notice. Limit or prohibit the use of all functions, disable accounts until canceled, and announce the results.
b. You understand and agree that the OKNovel platform has the right to impose penalties based on reasonable judgment for acts violating relevant laws and regulations or provisions of this agreement, take appropriate legal actions against any violators, and retain related information in compliance with laws for departmental reporting purposes. Users shall bear all legal responsibilities arising therefrom.
c. You understand and agree that you shall be fully responsible for any claims, demands, or losses arising from violations of this agreement or related service terms; if the OKNovel platform suffers losses, you shall indemnify.
d. You understand and agree to the status of the OKNovel account being disabled:
- Account Blocked: All functions are disabled.
This status is a system protection measure. Based on user behavior and data analysis, the system disables all permanent functions for users exhibiting obvious fraudulent or deceptive behavior. Under this status, suspected users cannot log into the application, and all functions are disabled.
e. You understand and agree to the appeal process for OKNovel account disabling:
The disabling function of user accounts is executed by the system, which may result in accidental blocking. Therefore, we grant users the right to appeal for account restoration. Disabled users must provide relevant valid supporting materials for manual review by our AFF team (Anti-Fraud Department).
The specific requirements are as follows: the appealing user must provide, for example: OKNovel platform ID number;
The appealing user must provide personal identification information: provide photos of the front and back of the ID card. Please ensure that the ID card photo indicates: for OKNovel account appeal only.
Relevance of supporting materials: The supporting materials provided by the appealing user must sufficiently prove the manner in which the user used the APP.
Validity of supporting materials: The supporting materials provided by the appealing user must stem from data analysis of abnormal points.
Review period: Within 15 working days after the above relevant materials are confirmed to be valid; upon passing the review: the Anti-Fraud and Financial Fraud team will manually review the materials provided by the appealing user. If the review passes, the system will restore all functions of the appealing user within 24 hours. If the review fails, the fraudulent user will not be able to restore normal use of corresponding functions of OKNovel, and the platform will no longer accept their appeals.
The final interpretation rights belong to OKNovel.
8. Disclaimer
8.1 This platform is provided on an "as is," "as available," and "with all faults" basis, specifically for the purposes described in this agreement. You bear all risks while using the platform, and it is advised that you exercise caution.
8.2 OKNovel does not guarantee the availability, continuity, uninterrupted service, or error-free operation of the platform and its related functions, nor does it ensure that there are no viruses, worms, or other security vulnerabilities on the platform. You understand and agree that when using the platform or its related websites or platforms to obtain content or materials, the risk is borne by you, and you will be responsible for any property damage (including the computer system or mobile device connecting to the platform) or data loss resulting from using the platform or downloading or using such materials or content.
8.3 OKNovel makes no guarantees regarding the availability, delivery, performance, pricing, or timeliness of any works or other intellectual property on the platform. This includes not guaranteeing that future chapters of any work will be released on time, that works will continue to be available on the platform, or that the pricing of works and services will remain unchanged.
8.4 OKNovel is not responsible for the deletion or non-saving of any comments or other information submitted by you on the platform, and we explicitly do not commit to keeping any comments you submit. You must back up any comments uploaded to the platform.
8.5 You understand and agree that OKNovel is not responsible for any performance failures caused by reasons beyond its control, including but not limited to natural disasters, fires, explosions, sabotage, terrorist activities, climate anomalies, national emergencies, riots, wars, labor disputes, vendor failures, shortages, defaults, governmental actions or requests, and service interruptions caused by compliance with state or federal laws, regulations, or rules.
9. Limitation of Liability
9.1 Notwithstanding any contrary provisions in this agreement, OKNovel shall not be liable to you for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, exemplary, additional contract outside or punitive damages of any kind, relating to the platform or this agreement, regardless of the legal theory (including but not limited to contract, tort, personal injury, property damage, negligence, warranty, or strict liability), whether or not OKNovel has been advised of the possibility or probability of such damages, even if other available remedies have failed to fulfill their essential purpose. If you are dissatisfied with the platform or any terms, or believe that OKNovel has breached these terms, your sole and exclusive remedy is to stop using the platform. This limitation of liability is one of the foundations of our transaction.
9.2 Notwithstanding any contrary provisions of this agreement, if any part of this limitation of liability is found to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason, the liability of OKNovel arising from a breach of this agreement and/or your use of the platform shall not exceed two hundred dollars ($200.00 USD).
10. Indemnification
10.1 You are responsible for your use of the platform, and you will defend and indemnify OKNovel and its officers, directors, employees, consultants, affiliates, subsidiaries, and agents (collectively, "OKNovel Entities") against all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, that are related in any way to: (a) your access, use, or claimed use of the platform; (b) your violation of any part of these terms, any representation, warranty, or agreement mentioned in these terms, or any applicable law or regulation; (c) your violation of any third-party rights, including any intellectual property or publicity, confidentiality, other property, or privacy rights; (d) any dispute or issue between you and any third party. We reserve the right to assume exclusive defense and control of any matter you are required to indemnify us for (without limiting your obligation to indemnify), in which case you agree to cooperate with us in the defense of that claim.
10.2 OKNovel reserves the right to assume exclusive defense of any claims for which it is entitled to indemnification, in which case you shall promptly provide reasonable cooperation to OKNovel at your own expense.
11. Promotions
Apart from these terms, promotions given by OKNovel through the platform or otherwise may have specific rules that differ from those in these terms. By participating in promotions, you agree to be bound by these additional terms and conditions, which will be provided to you at the time the promotion is offered. OKNovel encourages you to review all rules before participating in any promotion. If the rules of a specific promotion conflict with these terms, the rules of the specific promotion shall take precedence over these terms.
12. Intellectual Property Infringement
12.1 OKNovel respects the intellectual property rights of others and seeks to provide a platform free from materials infringing others' intellectual property. If you genuinely believe your intellectual property rights have been infringed by the use of the platform, you may notify us by email with the subject line "Infringement Notice" at: developer@codescie.com, which should include:
- The electronic or physical signature of the authorized representative of the owner of the copyright (or other intellectual property) interest;
- A description of the copyrighted work (or other intellectual property interest) you claim has been infringed;
- A description of where the material you claim is infringing is located on the platform;
- Your email address and mailing address and/or telephone number;
- A statement that you genuinely believe the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright (or other intellectual property) owner, its agent, or the law;
- A statement made under penalty of perjury that the information in your notification is accurate, and that you are the copyright (or other intellectual property) owner or are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright (or other intellectual property) owner.
If you believe that a notice of copyright infringement you submitted is improper, you may submit a "counter-notice" to OKNovel, which should include:
- Your physical or electronic signature;
- Identification of the removed material or access to the disabled material;
- A statement made under penalty of perjury that you genuinely believe the removal or disabling of the material was in error or that the material was misidentified;
- Your full name, email address, mailing address, and your consent to jurisdiction of the courts in (a) the judicial district where your address is located if your address is in Hong Kong, or (b) the courts located in Hong Kong if your address is outside of Hong Kong, and that you will accept service of process from the complainant or their authorized agent.
12.2 Any notification or counter-notice you submit under the above provisions must be truthful and submitted under penalty of perjury. False notifications or counter-notices may result in personal liability. Therefore, you may wish to seek legal counsel before submitting a notice or counter-notice. Notwithstanding any contrary provisions in this agreement, please note that whether or not OKNovel disables access or removes any material according to the above provisions, OKNovel may disclose your identity to any third party claiming an infringement of intellectual property rights here, or disclose the content of any counter-notice to the person who provided it. You acknowledge and agree that any disclosures we make in accordance with the above provisions do not violate any of your rights, including but not limited to any privacy rights you may have.
13. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution
13.1 You agree and acknowledge that these terms shall be governed exclusively by the laws applicable to contracts made and performed in Hong Kong, without regard to any principles of conflict of laws.
13.2 You and OKNovel agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising in any way relating to these terms or your relationship with OKNovel (whether based on contract, tort, fraud, misrepresentation, or any other legal theory, regardless of whether the claim arises during or after the term of this agreement) shall be resolved by binding arbitration.
14. Notices
All legal notices under these terms must be in writing and sent by email to OKNovel at: developer@codescie.com. By using the platform, you agree that any legal notice that OKNovel sends electronically will meet any legal communication or notification requirements. You agree to keep all contact information contained in your account up to date, and we are not responsible if you fail to keep your account or contact information updated.
15. Contact Information
The platform is operated by CODESCIENCE NETWORK TECHNOLOGY LIMITED, located at Room 1204, Mong Kok Commercial Centre, 16 Argyle Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. You can contact us via email at developer@codescie.com.