Welcome to SOOC! These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) are an agreement between you and [Company Legal Name] (“we,” “us” or “our”) governing your use of the SOOC mobile application, website and related services (together, the “Services”).
1. Acceptance of Terms
By signing up for, signing in to, or otherwise using the Services, you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. We may revise these Terms as our business or the law changes. Revised Terms will be posted on this page, and we will notify you of material changes through the app or another prominent method. Continuing to use the Services after the changes take effect means you accept the revised Terms.
2. Accounts & Security
- You must provide accurate registration information and complete any identity verification required by law.
- Your account is for your personal use only. You may not lend, transfer, sell or share it with others.
- You are responsible for keeping your account and sign-in credentials secure. You are responsible for losses caused by unauthorized use of your account resulting from your own failure to protect it. If you notice any suspicious activity, contact us immediately.
- If your account is inactive for [12] consecutive months, we may reclaim it after giving you prior notice.
3. The Services
The Services let you read interactive fiction, make choices that branch the story, collect endings, comment and interact with other readers, and use our tools to create and publish your own interactive stories. Available features depend on the current version of the app.
Some stories are written by third-party authors, and their views do not represent ours. All characters and events in the stories are fictional; any resemblance to real persons or events is coincidental.
4. Virtual Items & Subscriptions
- The Services may offer virtual currency (such as “Gems”), chapter unlocks, premium choices and other virtual items, as well as membership subscriptions. Virtual items may only be used within the Services. They cannot be exchanged for real money, are non-transferable, and have no monetary value. What you purchase is a limited license to use them, not ownership.
- Purchases made through the Apple App Store or Google Play are subject to that platform's payment and refund policies. Please submit refund requests to the relevant platform.
- Auto-renewal: subscriptions automatically renew and are charged to your platform account within 24 hours before the end of each billing period, unless you turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the period ends. You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time in Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions on iOS, or in Subscriptions in the Google Play Store.
- Except where required by law or supported by platform policy, virtual items that have been purchased and used are non-refundable.
- If you obtain virtual items through improper means (including exploiting bugs, using cheats, or buying from unofficial sources), we may remove those items and take further action.
5. User Content
- Ownership: you (or the original rights holder) retain the copyright in original works you create and publish through the Services (“User Content”).
- License to us: to operate and promote the Services, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute and adapt the format of (for example, to fit different screens) your User Content within the Services and related promotional channels. This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for promotional materials already reasonably in use and content other users have already shared.
- Your promises: you confirm that you have all necessary rights to your User Content, and that it does not infringe anyone's copyright, publicity, privacy or other rights.
- Moderation: we may review User Content under applicable law and these Terms, and may decline to publish, remove, hide or restrict content that violates them.
- If you believe content on the Services infringes your rights, please send a notice with proof of ownership using the contact details in Section 13. We will respond promptly in accordance with applicable law, including the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act where it applies.
6. Acceptable Use
When using the Services, you must not post, share or engage in:
- content that is illegal or promotes illegal activity;
- pornography, gambling, gratuitous violence, terrorism, or content that incites crime; any sexual content involving minors is strictly prohibited;
- harassment, hate speech, defamation, or content that violates others' intellectual property or privacy;
- plagiarism, or reposting others' work without permission;
- spam, scams, fake engagement or manipulated ratings;
- using bots, scripts, scrapers or other unofficial tools to access or interfere with the Services, or reverse engineering or decompiling the app;
- impersonating another person or a member of our staff;
- any other activity that violates applicable law or these Terms.
If you violate these rules, we may, depending on the severity, issue a warning, remove content, restrict features, or suspend or permanently ban your account, and we reserve the right to pursue legal remedies.
7. Intellectual Property
Except for User Content, all intellectual property in the Services — including the software, interface design, text, images, audio, the “SOOC” name and logo, and stories created by us or our partners — belongs to us or the relevant rights holders. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell or commercially exploit any of it without our written permission.
We grant you a personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive, revocable license to install and use the Services on your devices for non-commercial purposes.
8. Minors
If you are under 18 (or the age of majority where you live), you may use the Services only with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian, who should review these Terms with you. Minors must obtain a parent's or guardian's permission before making any purchase. We offer a teen mode and age ratings on content, and parents can help turn on these protections.
9. Disclaimers
- The Services are provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent permitted by law, we make no warranties that the Services will be uninterrupted, timely or error-free.
- We will do our best to fix service interruptions or data issues caused by force majeure, network failures, third-party service outages (such as payment or cloud providers), cyberattacks or maintenance, but to the extent permitted by law we are not liable for resulting indirect losses.
- User Content is the responsibility of the person who posted it. We do not guarantee its accuracy or legality, but we will fulfil our platform obligations under applicable law.
10. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising from the Services. Our total liability to you for all claims relating to the Services is limited to the amount you actually paid us for the Services in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law.
11. Changes & Termination
- We may modify, upgrade or retire features or stories as needed to run the Services, and will try to give advance notice.
- You may stop using the Services and delete your account at any time.
- We may stop providing the Services to you if you materially breach these Terms.
- If we decide to shut down the Services, we will give at least [30] days' notice and handle unused paid virtual items and memberships in accordance with applicable law.
12. Governing Law & Disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of [Governing Jurisdiction], without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms will first be resolved through good-faith negotiation. If negotiation fails, either party may bring the dispute before the competent courts of [City / Venue]. If you are a consumer, you may also benefit from mandatory protections under the laws of the country where you live, and nothing in these Terms affects those rights.
13. General
- If any provision of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full effect.
- Our failure or delay in exercising any right under these Terms is not a waiver of that right.
- Headings are for convenience only and do not affect how these Terms are interpreted.
- App store terms: if you downloaded the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, you also agree to that platform's applicable terms. These Terms are between you and us only; Apple and Google are not responsible for the Services or their content.
For questions about these Terms, or to submit an infringement notice, contact us:
- Company: [Company Legal Name]
- Support email: support@sooc.app
- Copyright & legal email: legal@sooc.app
- Mailing address: [Mailing Address]