Terms of Service

1.1 What Plotscribe is. Plotscribe is writing software for novelists, operated by Robert Boyd (“we”, “us”). It includes the desktop app, the web app at app.plotscribe.app, the iPhone, iPad and Android apps, and Sync, our paid service that keeps your Worlds on all your devices and lets you write with others (together, the “Service”). These terms are an agreement between you and us; by creating an account, subscribing, or using the Service you accept them and our Privacy Policy.

1.2 Who can use it. You must be at least 13 and old enough to enter this agreement where you live. If you use the Service for an organization, you accept these terms for it and confirm you’re allowed to.

1.3 The desktop app is free. The desktop app is free to download and use, with every writing, planning and export feature, and doesn’t need an account. An account is needed for Sync, the web app and the phone apps.

1.4 Our property. We own the Service, its software, design, documentation and sample content. Apart from the right to use the Service under these terms, these terms don’t give you any right in them.

1.5 Workspaces and roles. A Workspace owner decides who joins and what each member can do (Admin, Export, Write or Read). You’re responsible for the roles you give; anyone you invite can see what their role allows.

2.1 Your account. Keep your sign-in details safe. You’re responsible for what happens in your account, except where someone gets in by exploiting a weakness in the Service itself. Tell us promptly at support@plotscribe.app if you think your account has been misused.

2.2 Things you agree not to do.

• break the law, infringe anyone’s rights, or harass, threaten or defraud anyone;
• upload malware, or attack, overload or disrupt the Service;
• access accounts or data that aren’t yours, or probe or test the Service’s security without our written permission (we welcome reports at support@plotscribe.app);
• copy, resell, rent or sublicense the Service, or remove our notices or branding;
• reverse engineer the Service, except where the law allows it despite this term;
• use the Service in breach of sanctions or export laws.

2.3 Suspension. If your use seriously threatens the Service, its security or other people, we may suspend the affected accounts. Where we reasonably can, we’ll tell you first, give you a chance to fix it, limit the suspension to what’s needed, and lift it once the problem is resolved.

Some parts of the Service rely on others: Stripe for payment, Apple and Google for sign-in, and the App Store and Google Play for the phone apps. Their own terms apply to your use of them, and we aren’t responsible for services we don’t run.

4.1 Price. Sync costs $6 a month per person, plus any applicable tax. Everyone who writes in a shared Workspace needs their own Sync; people invited to read are free. A team Workspace syncs while its owner subscribes. The phone apps require Sync, and so does editing in the web app.

4.2 Free trial. Your first Sync subscription starts with a 7-day free trial. You give a payment method at checkout. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, you’ll be charged $6 when it ends and every month after that until you cancel. The trial is once per person: if you have had Sync before, through any store, your subscription starts paid.

4.3 Payment. Sync is sold through Stripe, which acts as merchant of record and handles payment and tax; Stripe’s terms also apply to your purchase. By subscribing you authorize the monthly charge to your payment method, without further action from you, until you cancel. Keep your payment details current in Manage subscription.

4.4 Taxes. Prices don’t include sales tax, VAT or similar taxes, which are added at checkout where they apply.

4.5 Failed payments. If a payment fails, Stripe may retry it, and Sync may pause until it succeeds. Your work stays on your devices and can still be exported. If you think you were charged in error, tell us within 60 days of the charge and we’ll look into it and reply.

4.6 Price changes. We may change the price of Sync. We’ll tell you at least 30 days before a new price applies to your subscription, and you can cancel before it does.

4.7 App Store and Google Play. If you subscribed through the App Store or Google Play, that store bills you, and its rules decide renewal, cancellation and refunds.

5.1 Cancelling Sync. You can cancel any time, online, from Manage subscription in any of the apps or in your account, including during the free trial. Sync then runs to the end of the period you’ve paid for (or the end of the trial) and doesn’t renew.

5.2 When Sync ends. Your work stays yours. The desktop app keeps working with everything on your computer. The web app becomes read-only, and the phone apps ask you to restart Sync. A team Workspace stops syncing for its members while its owner has no Sync. You can export your Worlds at any time, whether or not you subscribe.

5.3 Ending the agreement. You can end this agreement at any time by deleting your account in Settings. You can’t delete an account while you own a Workspace that other people still belong to; remove them or hand it over first. We may end it, or close your account, if you seriously or repeatedly breach these terms and don’t fix the breach within 30 days of our notice, or straight away where the breach puts others at risk.

5.4 What happens then. Deleting your account cancels a Stripe subscription immediately; cancel an App Store or Google Play subscription in that store. Your synced Worlds become inaccessible at once and are permanently deleted after 30 days, so export anything you want to keep first. Payments aren’t refunded for partial months, except where the law requires it or where we end the agreement without you being at fault, in which case we refund the unused part of a period you’ve paid for.

5.5 What survives. Sections 1.4, 3, 4 (for amounts owed), 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 continue after the agreement ends.

You confirm that you have the right to the content you put in Plotscribe and that it doesn’t break the law. We provide the Service “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties not stated in these terms, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, and we don’t promise the Service will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free. Keep your own copies of work that matters to you; export is always available. Some places don’t allow these disclaimers, so they may not all apply to you.

To the extent the law allows, we aren’t liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses, or for lost profits, revenue or data, even if we were told they were possible. Our total liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of what you paid us for Sync in the 12 months before the claim arose, or US$50. These limits don’t apply to our gross negligence, wilful misconduct or fraud, or to anything the law doesn’t let us limit.

If someone brings a claim against us because of content you put in the Service or your breach of these terms, you’ll cover our reasonable costs of defending it and any resulting settlement you agree to or judgment against us. We’ll tell you promptly about the claim and let you take part in its defense.

9.1 Confidentiality. We treat your writing as confidential. We access it only to provide the Service, keep it secure, fix problems you ask us to help with, or comply with the law. If the law compels us to disclose it, we’ll tell you first where we’re allowed to.

9.2 Feedback. If you send us suggestions or ideas about the Service, we may use them freely and without paying you, and we won’t name you as their source without your permission. Feedback doesn’t include your writing.

10.1 Account information. To run your account we keep the information described in our Privacy Policy, such as your email, name, devices and subscription status, and use it only as that policy says.

10.2 Your content. You own what you write. You give us a limited, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, process, transmit and display your content only to provide the Service to you and to the people you share it with. We don’t use your writing to train AI or for advertising, and the license ends when your content is deleted, apart from copies in routine backups until they expire.

10.3 Service data. We collect information about how the Service performs and is used, such as counts of active installs and downloads. We may use it freely in aggregated, anonymous form that doesn’t identify you or reveal your content.

10.4 Security. We use reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards, including encrypting synced writing before it is stored. No service is perfectly secure, so keep your own backups.

11.1 Changes to the Service. We keep improving Plotscribe and may add, change or remove features. If we ever shut Sync down, we’ll give you notice and time to export, and refund any period you prepaid and can’t use.

11.2 Changes to these terms. We’ll post changes here with a new effective date. For significant changes we’ll tell account holders by email or in the app at least 30 days before they take effect. If you don’t agree, you can cancel Sync and delete your account before then.

11.3 Notices. We’ll send notices to your account email or show them in the app. Send notices to us at support@plotscribe.app.

11.4 Events beyond our control. We aren’t responsible for failures caused by events we can’t reasonably control, such as outages at our hosting providers, natural disasters, war or government action.

11.5 Assignment. You can’t transfer this agreement without our consent. We may transfer it as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of the Service, and will tell you if we do.

11.6 Severability and waiver. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies and that part is enforced as far as the law allows. Not enforcing a term isn’t a waiver of it.

11.7 Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Disputes will be heard in the state or federal courts located in California, unless the law where you live gives you the right to bring them there.

11.8 Entire agreement. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service, and replace any earlier ones.

If you got Plotscribe from Apple’s App Store, these terms are between you and us only, not Apple. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app. If the app fails to meet a warranty that applies, you may notify Apple, which may refund the app’s purchase price, and Apple has no other warranty obligation for it. We, not Apple, are responsible for any claims about the app, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, consumer protection and intellectual property claims. You confirm you aren’t in a country subject to a U.S. government embargo and aren’t on a U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.