Roundware Terms of Service

Draft — not yet in effect. Last updated: [DATE]. Earlier versions and every change: on GitHub.

These terms are between Halsey Solutions, LLC ("we", "Roundware") and the organization or person who creates a Roundware account ("you"). They cover using Roundware to run projects. Participants who record for your project agree to your project's terms, not these. We provide a template you can start from.

The short version

• You own your content, and so do your participants. We only get the permission we need to store it, play it and run Roundware for you.
• We don't sell data, show ads or train AI on anything you upload.
• You decide the terms between you and your participants, including who owns their recordings. You're responsible for getting their agreement, and parental permission where children take part.
• Don't use Roundware for anything illegal or harmful (the list is below).
• Roundware is run by a very small team, with no guaranteed uptime. Read How Roundware is run before relying on it for something critical.
• Paid plans (when there are any) can be cancelled at any time, and stay active until the end of the period you paid for. If you're then over the free plan's limits, you get 60 days to sort it out before anything goes offline, and nothing is deleted without plenty of warning.
• You can export all your data and leave at any time, in open formats (spreadsheets, JSON and the original files).
• Roundware is open source. If roundware.app ever stops, you can run Roundware yourself and carry on.
• The name "Roundware" is a trademark. Say your project is made with Roundware, but don't name your own service after it.
• After you close your account, we keep your data for 90 days, then delete it.
• If we change these terms in a way that matters, we'll tell you at least 30 days ahead.
• Massachusetts law applies.

The rest of this page gives the detail.

1. Your account

• You need to be at least 18, and able to agree to these terms for your organization if you're signing up on its behalf.
• Keep your password to yourself. You're responsible for what's done with your account and by the team members you invite.
• Tell us right away at privacy@roundware.app if you think someone else has got into your account.

2. Your content

"Your content" means everything in your account: projects, settings, wording, images, and all the contributions your participants send.

• We don't own it. You (or your participants, under your project's terms) keep all rights to it.
• The permission you give us is only what's needed to run Roundware for you: to store your content, copy it (for example into backups), convert it (for example, audio into a format browsers can play), and show and play it where your project's settings say. That permission lasts while your content is on Roundware, and ends when it's deleted.
• We won't sell it, use it for advertising, use it to train AI, or use it for anything else of our own. We won't show it off as an example of Roundware without asking you first.
• Your project's public parts are public. If your project is published, anyone can see and hear its contributions, as your settings allow.

3. Your participants

Your participants are your relationship, not ours. You're responsible for:

• Your project's terms. Before people contribute, your project shows them your terms and they agree. You decide what those terms say, including whether participants keep ownership of their recordings (the default in our template) or give it to you. Make sure the terms match how you'll actually use contributions, for example if you'll broadcast them.
• Children. Roundware isn't aimed at children. If your project involves them, you must get permission from a parent or the school first (in the USA, for children under 13; in parts of Europe, under 16), and keep it.
• Requests. When a participant asks to see, correct, withdraw or delete their contribution, you handle it. We give you the tools in the admin, and help when they aren't enough.
• Contact details. If participants give you their name or email, use them only as your project's terms say.

Where European or UK data protection law applies, you're the "controller" of your participants' data and we're your "processor". Our Data Processing Agreement is part of these terms and applies automatically.

4. What you may not do

Don't use Roundware to:

• break the law, or help someone else break it;
• upload content you don't have the right to share, such as someone else's music or a recording of someone who didn't agree;
• harass, threaten or exploit anyone, or publish hateful content, or content that sexualizes minors;
• collect people's data without telling them;
• send spam, or attack, overload or probe Roundware or anyone else's systems;
• get around plan limits, or another organization's privacy.

If a project breaks these rules, we may hide content or suspend the account. Where we can, we'll tell you first and give you a chance to fix it. If there's a serious risk to people, we may act first and tell you right after.

5. Plans and fees

Roundware's plans have limits, for example on storage or the number of projects. Paid plans aren't offered yet. Before we start charging, we'll tell you at least 30 days ahead, and we won't charge you for anything without your agreement.

Once paid plans are offered:

• You can cancel at any time, in the admin, with no fee and no need to give a reason.
• You keep everything you paid for until the end of the billing period. After that you're not charged again, and your organization moves to the free plan.
• If you fit the free plan, nothing changes: your projects stay up as they are.
• If you're over the free plan's limits when the paid period ends:
  • New contributions pause straight away. People can still listen, and participants see that the project isn't taking recordings right now.
  • You have 60 days to export, delete down to the limits, or choose a paid plan again. We'll email you reminders along the way.
  • After 60 days, the projects that put you over the limits go offline. They're no longer public, but nothing is deleted. You choose which projects stay; if you haven't, we keep the ones changed most recently.
  • 90 days after that, the offline projects are deleted for good, as if you'd closed your account. We'll email you before that happens too.
  • Choose a paid plan again at any point before then, and everything comes back as it was.
• We don't refund the rest of a period you've already paid for. If something went wrong on our side, or your situation is unusual, write to us. We're nice and reasonable.
• Prices: if we change a plan's price, we'll tell you at least 30 days before it affects you, and you can cancel before then.

Cancelling a paid plan is different from closing your account (section 7). Closing your account starts the 90 days before your data is deleted.

6. Our service

• We work hard to keep Roundware running well, but we can't promise it will always be available, or free of errors. There's no service level agreement. How Roundware is run explains what we do and can't do.
• We may change or improve Roundware. If we remove something you rely on, we'll give you reasonable notice where we can.
• Keep your own copies of contributions that matter to you. Uploaded files aren't backed up yet (see How Roundware is run).

7. Leaving

• You can export all your data at any time, in the admin: contributions and their details as a spreadsheet (CSV) and as JSON, your projects' settings as JSON, and every audio file and photo as it was uploaded. Nothing is locked in a format only Roundware can read. An export can be imported back into Roundware, here or on another server.
• You can close your account at any time.
• After you close it, we keep your data for 90 days, so you can export it or change your mind. Then we delete it for good. Deleted data is gone from our backups within a further 7 days.
• We may close an account that breaks these terms (section 4), or that's been inactive for a long time. Before closing an inactive account, we'll write to its owners at least 60 days ahead.
• If roundware.app ever has to shut down, we'll give you at least 90 days' notice to export everything. And because Roundware is open source (section 9), you won't be stranded: you, or someone you hire, can run your own Roundware server, load your export into it, and keep your projects going.

8. Responsibility if something goes wrong

This section is the most legal-sounding one, because it has to be precise.

• Roundware is provided "as is". As far as the law allows, we make no promises beyond what these terms say. In particular, we don't promise it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fit for a particular purpose.
• As far as the law allows, we're not responsible for indirect losses, such as lost profits, lost opportunities or lost data, even if we knew they might happen.
• As far as the law allows, our total responsibility for any claim about Roundware is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or US$100.
• You're responsible for your content and your project's terms with participants. If someone makes a claim against us because of them, or because of your breaking section 4, you'll cover our reasonable costs.
• Nothing here limits responsibility that the law doesn't allow to be limited, such as for fraud.

9. The software is open source

Roundware has been open source since it began in 2008, and still is. These terms cover the hosted service at roundware.app, not the software itself.

That matters for you because you're never tied to us:

• you can run Roundware on your own server instead, under the software's licenses (github.com/roundware);
• if roundware.app stops for any reason, your export (section 7) can be loaded into your own Roundware, and your projects carry on.

[Planned: the current version of the server and admin are being prepared for public release, with instructions for running your own and loading an export.]

The name

"Roundware" and the Roundware logo are trademarks of Halsey Burgund ("Roundware" is a registered trademark, US serial number 85480181). Halsey Solutions, LLC uses them with his permission. The software's licenses cover its code, not its name. So:

• you're welcome to say that your project is made with Roundware or runs on Roundware, and to link to us;
• if you run your own copy of the software, give your service its own name. Don't present it as Roundware or roundware.app, or use the Roundware logo as your own.

[LAWYER: check this section's wording, and that the trademark's owner (Halsey Burgund) and the operator (Halsey Solutions, LLC) are described correctly.]

10. Changes to these terms

We'll post every change here, with its date; the full history is public on on GitHub. If a change matters, we'll email account owners at least 30 days before it takes effect. If you don't agree, you can close your account before then, and the old terms apply until you do.

11. The legal bits

• These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, USA. Any dispute goes to the courts of Massachusetts, unless the law where you are gives you the right to use your own courts.
• If part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies.
• If we don't enforce something right away, we haven't given up the right to.
• You can't transfer your account to someone else without asking us. We may transfer these terms if Roundware passes to another organization, and we'd tell you first.
• These terms, the Privacy Policy and the Data Processing Agreement are the whole agreement between us about Roundware.

12. Contact

Halsey Solutions, LLC — Roundware [ADDRESS] privacy@roundware.app

Every change to this document, on GitHub. Reuse it, with credit, under CC BY 4.0.