Terms & Conditions

Last updated: November 13, 2023

Agreement to Terms

Welcome to Storylace!

All references to us, we or our refers to these Terms of Service (“Terms” or “Agreement”) are applicable to any of our applications, platform, subscriptions and the services we provide (“Services”) to you, as the customer, including whether you volunteer as a “Librarian” for us as described below (hereinafter “you”). These Terms are our agreement regarding your usage of the Services, including any free services such as writing a review of a book. Certain Services may not be available to you unless you are a paid subscriber or have an account with us.

These Terms include information about your legal rights and address such terms as your usage obligations and restrictions, automatic subscription renewals, limitations of liability, resolution of disputes by arbitration, and a class action waiver. If you do not agree with all of these Terms, then you are expressly prohibited from using the Services and you must discontinue use immediately. Furthermore, if you violate these Terms, we may suspend or terminate your account in our sole discretion and without notice. We may also amend these Terms of Service at any time. Please periodically check our website for updates.

By using our Services, you agree to the Terms and you further agree that you are at least 18 years of age.

Your Information and Applicable Fees

When you register to use our Services, you may be required to create an account and profile, and you may incur fees which will be disclosed to you per your applicable subscription. If you do not have an account with us, your ability to access a number of the Services will be limited. By way of example and not limitation, only subscribers of the Services will have access to the artwork provided except as otherwise determined by us in our sole discretion.The fees and any applicable term commitment may automatically renew on a monthly or annual basis, depending on your subscription; and, the fees paid are not contingent on any future functionality or features. We will determine in our sole discretion whether access to such new features, functionality or enhancements will require an additional fee, and we have the right to change the Services at any time without notice and without a refund. You will be solely responsible for all taxes in connection with the Services. The price for any given subscription may change at any time.

Your user account and password may only be used and associated with one person which you may not share with any other party. You are solely responsible for protecting your account information, and we will not be liable for your failure to prevent unauthorized access to your account. You agree to notify us of any unauthorized access. You also agree that you are solely responsible for obtaining and maintaining all computer and mobile devices, hardware, internet access services and other equipment needed to access the Services as well as costs and fees associated therewith.

Please note that we can terminate your Services for any reason at any time if we believe there has been a breach of these Terms, a violation of law, or otherwise in our sole discretion. You will not be entitled to a refund for unused or terminated Services.

Any personal information we collect in connection with your use of the Services will be governed by the Storylace Privacy Notice, which forms an integral part of these Terms. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice periodically to learn more about our data handling practices.

Payments will be processed via third-party sites which we do not own or control, and you recognize and agree that we cannot be liable for a security breach of any third-party sites or services, including any hosting services.

End Users Between the Ages of Thirteen (13) and Eighteen (18) Years of Age

You must be at least 13 years of age to use the Services. However, if you are over the age of 13 and under the age of 18, you agree that you have obtained your parent or legal guardian’s consent to your use of the Services, and your parent or legal guardian has read these Terms.

For parents and legal guardians of end users under the age of 18, you agree that you are responsible for your child’s usage of the Services, and you consent to these Terms, regardless of whether you are directly supervising your child’s activities while accessing the Services.

Usage Obligations and Restrictions

Whether you are a paid subscriber of the Services or whether you are accessing certain free Services, you may have an opportunity to add books to your library, write reviews of books, and view the profiles of other users of the Services. You acknowledge and agree that because a book may be available for review or to add to a library on our website does not indicate we endorse or in any way agree with the views expressed by the author of such content or any reviews posted via our Services. In addition, we do not condone or endorse any books or content that promote misinformation or hate speech; and, we may remove any book titles, content or references to publications that support misinformation or hate speech.

You agree not to post any reviews or comments which:

include sensitive personally identifiable information such as a social security number or driver’s license, provided you may include a link to your personal site in compliance with these Terms;
are illegal, include hate speech, are maliciously false or knowingly inaccurate, threatening, discriminatory, defamatory, obscene or otherwise violate any third-party intellectual, privacy or publicity rights;
include content or quotes from third parties unless credit is given to such third party;
contain any form of advertising, including any self-promoted material or the promotion of any book for purchase, its pricing or availability in online or retail stores, or links to third-party services or goods;
spam reviews; or,
degrade or harass other users of the Services. We have the right, but not the obligation, to remove any review in our sole discretion and without notice.

You further agree not use information you may obtain about any user profiles to attempt to contact such individuals outside the scope of your use of Services or to compile information about such users, including but not limited to any demographic or other categorical or identifying information. You agree that you will not share any information which you learn about any other user of the Services with any third party or use such information except as specifically permitted in these Terms.

Any artwork or other content accessed through the Services cannot be used as or in connection with any NFT, crypto or any web3 technology. In addition, any artwork or other content accessed through the Services or any User Content, as defined below, cannot be commercialized by you or used to train AI algorithms of any kind, including any algorithms that in any way attempt to manipulate or rearrange images. You may not collect, aggregate, mine, scrape, or otherwise use any artwork or other User Content (as defined below) which has been uploaded to the Site for the purposes of publishing, selling, distributing or otherwise making the content available to others to use, download or copy. You may not use any robot, spider, or other automatic device, process, or means to access the Services for any purpose.

You may have the opportunity to volunteer as a “Librarian” of the Services which includes adding or editing book titles, authors, publication dates, and publishers as well as other identifying information. As a Librarian, you agree that you will include only accurate and complete information in connection with adding content, and you agree that we may delete any titles or other information about any book in our sole discretion. As a volunteer, you agree that you are not our employee and are not entitled to any payment or benefits of any kind. You may elect to no longer serve as a Librarian at any time.

Fan Art

In your sole discretion, you may also choose to upload your own original drawings, illustrations, graphic representations, short video or audio files, and animations inspired by your favorite books, graphic novels, or other creative works (“Fan Art”).

You may not upload Fan Art that in any way depicts, constitutes, or encourages hate speech, intolerance, cruelty, violence, vulgarity, offensive behavior, political statements, or illegal, unlawful, defamatory, harassing, abusive, or fraudulent activities or language. Fan Art depicting mature content, including but not limited to sexually suggestive postures, clothing, or behavior; partial or full nudity; drug paraphernalia or activity; or violence, gore, or similarly disturbing imagery, must be flagged as containing “mature content.” Other users may also flag Fan Art as containing mature content. If multiple users flag an item of Fan Art as containing mature content, when the Fan Art was not flagged as such upon upload, Storylace reserves the right to remove the Fan Art and/or consider a violation of these Terms.

Fan Art must be the product of human effort. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in any form or at any step of the creation process is not allowed. Storylace reserves the right to request proof that any Fan Art you upload was created by you, without the use of AI tools. If you suspect AI have been used to create Fan Art on the Storylace Site, please report it to [email protected].

Storylace reserves the right to remove Fan Art for any reason. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, Storylace specifically reserves the right to remove Fan Art if we determine (or reasonably believe) the Fan Art violates applicable law, these Terms, or the rights of any third party.

In particular, you must make sure that you have obtained proper permission or licensing from the copyright owner of any book, graphic novel, or other creative work that serves as source material for your Fan Art. Do not assume that you do not need permission:

if the work doesn’t have a © or similar copyright notice on it;
if the work seems to be freely available online;
you only use a little bit of the original work;
if you see other people using it without permission;
if you give attribution to the rightsholder;
if you don’t sell it or otherwise commercially benefit; or
if you alter or modify the original work.

While there are limited circumstances in the use of copyrighted works may be considered a “fair use” and would not require permission of the copyright owner, there are no hard and fast rules about what constitutes a “fair use” of copyrighted material. If you believe your use may qualify as “fair use” we recommend you consult with legal counsel first, before uploading any material to the Storylace Site.

If we receive a “takedown request” from a copyright owner following the procedures in the “Copyright Complaints” section below, Storylace is legally required to immediately remove your Fan Art. You will not receive advance warning and you will not be allowed an opportunity to “fix it.” If you repeatedly violate these Terms and post infringing Fan Art, we may terminate your access to the Storylace Site. Violations may also result in civil litigation or criminal prosecution by or on behalf of the relevant rightsholder.

As between you and Storylace, you will retain ownership of all Fan Art you provide on or through the Site and all intellectual property rights therein. You hereby grant Storylace a worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, sublicenseable license in and to all rights in your Fan Art expressly for use in connection with the Storylace Site as contemplated hereunder. The grant of this license includes, without limitation, the right of Storylace to host, use, copy, transfer, reproduce, distribute, transmit, publicly perform, modify, adapt and prepare derivative works from your Fan Art, on and via the Storylace Site, in connection with our performance under these Terms. Storylace will not modify or create derivative works based on any Fan Art you upload except as necessary to perform our obligations, including to display and distribute your Fan Art to other users as contemplated under these Terms. You waive in favor of Storylace and its successors and assigns all moral rights you may have in the Fan Art. The rights granted herein are granted separately with respect to each item of Fan Art that you submit. Nothing in this limited license shall be deemed to grant Storylace ownership or rights in your Fan Art other than the rights granted herein. This license grant shall terminate (i) automatically, if you remove an item of Fan Art using self-service tools available within your account settings, or (ii) no later than thirty (30) days after you notify Storylace in writing (email is sufficient) that you wish to withdrawn an item of Fan Art from the Site.

User Content

We make no representations or warranties with respect to the content, including Fan Art, posted by any user (collectively, “User Content”), and to the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any such User Content. If you are offended or otherwise dissatisfied with User Content or our Services, your sole remedy is to terminate your use of the Services, and you shall not be entitled to a refund.

You agree at all times to comply with all applicable laws in connection with your User Content and usage of the Services; and, you agree to respect other users’ rights.

By using our Services, you are agreeing to provide us with a perpetual license to use your User Content, including but not limited to any feedback or reviews, for any legal or commercial purpose in connection with the Services which we may provide to you, third parties or other customers. You retain sole and exclusive rights to your User Content apart from the perpetual license described herein or any third-party rights associated therewith. We have the right in our sole discretion to delete or remove any User Content for any reason in our sole discretion.

As for any User Content presented in connection with the Services, you represent and warrant that:

You have all the permissions and licenses legally required to provide the User Content to us as well as to display or use the Content pursuant to the Services;
Your User Content does not include personal or confidential information belonging to others which you are not authorized to share with us; and
Your User Content does not violate the rights of any third party.

Third-Party Services and Advertising

You agree that the only advertising which is permitted through our Services is advertising which is specifically approved by us. Our Services may contain ads about third parties and their services, books, or other products as well as links to their sites. We do not endorse, provide warranties in connection with, operate as agents, or have any responsibility for such third-party services or products or any third-party privacy practices which are not under our control. You further agree to release us from any liability to the extent related to third-party goods or services.

Our Intellectual Property Rights

Our Services, any content provided via the Services other than your User Content, and the underlying data and related technology, (the "Services IP"), are owned or solely licensed by us. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable right to access the Service solely for your personal use and not for the benefit of any third party. We may modify the Services at any time and without notice. You agree that our Services and all underlying intellectual property, including any content or trademarks, shall remain our sole and exclusive property, and you obtain no rights thereto except for the limited usage rights described in these Terms of Service.

You may not modify the Services or use them to provide competitive Services; and, you may not use the Services in any respect to replicate or attempt to create similar functionality to the Services. The Services may only be used in strict accordance with these Terms and any applicable instructions we provide to you. In addition, (i) you also may not share access to the Services with any third party or impersonate another user; (ii) you may not license, sublicense, sell, exploit, or in any way transfer the Services to any third party; (iii) use any security testing tools in order to probe, scan or attempt to ascertain the security of the Services; or, (iv) disclose any benchmark or performance tests of the Services; or, copy, replicate, access our Services to attempt to discover any source code in connection with the Services.

Furthermore, you agree that you will not: (a) extract data from the Service for a commercial purpose not permitted by these Terms of Service, including through use of an automated system or software (i.e. “screen scraping,” “data scraping,” or “web scraping”); or, (b) engaging in any activity that interferes with or disrupts, that is designed to interfere with or disrupt, or imposes undue burdens on the Services or its systems.

We remain the sole owners of all our trademarks, logos, and service marks.

Any artwork or content other than the Services IP and your User Content, is the property of the relevant author, artist, or other rightsholder who made that content available via the Service, and is or may be subject to copyright, trademark rights, or other intellectual property and proprietary rights. Such content may not be downloaded, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, re-uploaded, re-published, displayed, sold, licensed, or made available, or otherwise communicated to the public or exploited for any purposes except within the parameters set by the Services, including via any sharing features of the Services we may make available from time to time.

Copyright Complaints

To the extent that you believe your copyrighted work has been infringed upon through our Services, please send us the following information:

Your name, contact information, including your address, phone number and email address;
A description of the of copyrighted work that you believe is being infringed upon and where it can be found on our Services;
A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you believe the use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, and a letter signed by the copyright owner if you are acting on the copyright owner’s behalf.

Our agent for notice of any of the foregoing claims can be reached via email at: [email protected]

Modification, Suspension and Termination of Your Account

In our sole discretion, we may modify, suspend, or terminate your account or access to the Services for any reason, including if we determine that you have violated these Terms of Service. We also may remove accounts of members who are inactive for an extended period of time.

To the extent that our Services use third party services to provide specific services to users, you may be required to comply with such third party’s terms of service.

Indemnification and Release

Except where otherwise prohibited by applicable laws, you agree to indemnify, defend and release us from any claims, demands, legal actions, settlements, and costs (including attorney’s fees) brought by any third party (“Claims”) due to or arising out of (a) your violations of these Terms of Service, (b) your misuse of our Services, (c) your User Content (including your Fan Art), (d) your violation of any law, statute, ordinance or regulation or the rights of a third party, or (e) your intentional acts or omissions. You agree to promptly notify us of any third-party Claims, and you agree not to settle any Claim without our prior written consent.

To the extent permitted by law, you agree that we are not liable for any third-party acts, including any sub-processors which may host your data, and you agree to release us from any activities in which you engage in connection with the Services.

Warranty Disclaimers; Limitation of Liability

As with all technology, we cannot guarantee that the Services will at all times function without errors or interruptions. For that reason, our Services are provided to you “as is”; and, to the extent legally permitted, we disclaim all warranties of any kind, including but not limited any statutory or implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, that any Services are free of viruses or vulnerabilities, or that the Services or any content accessed via the Services does not infringe on any third-party rights. We also disclaim any warranties regarding (a) the reliability, timeliness, accuracy, and performance of our Services, (b) any information, reviews, services, or goods obtained through or advertised on our Services or by us, as well as for any information or advice received through any links to other websites or resources provided through our Services, (c) the results that may be obtained from the Services, and (d) the correction of any errors in the Services, (e) storage, access to, or the security of your data; and (f) any third-party services or interactions with other participants through our Services. Some jurisdictions do not permit certain warranty limitations in which instance the foregoing shall be limited to the extent allowed by applicable law.

You agree to be solely responsible for maintaining a copy of your content and data and any information which you share in connection with the Services. You agree to release us from any and all Claims in connection with your data content.

We are not liable for circumstances outside our control, including but not limited to cyber attacks, power failures or surges, floods, government regulations, inclement weather, internet or hardware failures, fires, third-party acts or other force majeure causes.

To the full extent permitted by applicable law, you agree that in no event shall we be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, or other intangible losses (even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages) arising out of or in connection with (a) our Services or the inability to use our Services (however arising, including our negligence), (b) statements or actions of any user or third party on the Services, (c) your acts in connection with the Services, or (d) any other matter relating to the Services. To the extent permitted by law, our liability to you in any circumstance is limited to the amount of fees, if any, you paid to us in the 12 months prior to the action that may give rise to liability of $100, whichever is less.

Dispute Resolution

Except for obtaining injunctive or equitable relief, you agree to submit any claim to arbitration when legally permissible. In arbitration, certain rights that you or we would have in court may not be available, such as discovery or appeal. You are hereby waiving any right to trial in a court of law. This agreement to arbitrate shall apply regardless of whether the claim arises during or after any termination of this Terms of Service. The venue for arbitration is the County of Los Angeles, and governing law is California.

Any claim subject to arbitration must be filed within one year after the date the party asserting the claim first knows or should know of the act, omission or default giving rise to the claim.

You agree to resolve disputes with us on an individual basis, and you are expressly waiving any right to participate in class actions.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, we may bring an action in a court of applicable jurisdiction to obtain injunctive relief or equitable relief for breach of any confidentiality or intellectual property rights, the monetary damages of which cannot be readily quantifiable.

General Terms

These Terms represent the entire agreement between us, and there are no other oral or written agreements that govern the terms herein.

You will have deemed to consent to any modifications to these Terms of Service by your continued use.

No agency, partnership, joint venture, or fiduciary relationship is intended between you and us is by this Agreement.

There are no third-party beneficiaries to this this Agreement.

This Agreement and the relationship between you and us shall be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict of laws provisions.

This Agreement is not assignable, transferable, or sublicensable by you but may be assigned or transferred by us to any affiliate or subsidiary, or in connection with a change of control, merger, or acquisition.

A party’s failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision and does not waive any right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. All waivers must be in writing by the party waiving such right.

If any provision of this Agreement is found to be invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, all other terms of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect.

Those provisions which by their nature are intended to remain in full force and effect following termination, including but not limited to indemnification, intellectual property rights and confidentiality, shall survive any termination or expiration of these Terms of Service.