Terms of Service - Arphros

1. Introduction

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of Arphros, including the game, website, accounts, online services, community features, level sharing, support tools, and premium features. By using Arphros, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

Arphros is a community rhythm game service. We do not sell user-uploaded levels, music, or audio as a product, and we do not intentionally monetize specific user-uploaded copyrighted works. Any supporter income is treated as voluntary donation-style support for service costs, development, and community operations.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use Arphros. If you use Arphros on behalf of another person or organization, you confirm that you have authority to accept these Terms for them.

2. Eligibility and Regional Restrictions

• You must be at least 13 years old to use Arphros.
• You may not use Arphros if local law prohibits you from doing so.
• You are responsible for complying with laws that apply to you, including export control, sanctions, consumer protection, and privacy laws.
• We may restrict, suspend, or discontinue access in regions where operating the service becomes unlawful, unsafe, or impractical.

3. Accounts and Security

• You may play as a guest or create an account with a username, email address, and password.
• You are responsible for keeping your login credentials private and for all activity on your account.
• Accounts may not be sold, transferred, shared, rented, or used to impersonate another person.
• You must provide accurate account information and keep it reasonably up to date.
• If you believe your account was compromised, contact us as soon as possible.
• We may require additional verification before changing sensitive account information or processing deletion, appeal, or data requests.

4. Public Profile and Game Data

• Your public profile may display your username, avatar, profile banner, about me text, badges, performance points (PP), coins, EXP, published levels, featured levels, verified levels, and online status.
• Your email address, password, device ID, IP address, and private admin notes are not intentionally displayed publicly.
• Leaderboards and public profiles are community features. Your public game stats may remain visible while your account is active.
• Do not place private personal information in usernames, about me text, level descriptions, comments, banners, or other public content.

5. User Content and License

• You may create, upload, publish, and share levels, level metadata, level archives, embedded audio files, banners, profile content, comments, and other content ("User Content").
• You keep ownership of your User Content, but you grant Arphros a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute, adapt for technical purposes, and make your User Content available as needed to operate, improve, moderate, and promote Arphros.
• This license continues for as long as your User Content is available in Arphros. Backup copies, moderation records, deleted-level archives, and legal/security records may remain for a limited period after deletion.
• You are responsible for your User Content and confirm that you have all rights and permissions needed to upload and share it.
• Do not upload copyrighted music, sound recordings, audio samples, images, models, charts, levels, or other material unless you own it, have permission from the rights holder, use a valid license, or the material is otherwise legally permitted.
• We may remove, hide, modify access to, or refuse to distribute User Content that violates these Terms, community rules, copyright rules, technical requirements, or applicable law.

6. Level Verification, PP, Coins, EXP, and Virtual Items

• PP, coins, EXP, badges, verification, featured status, skins, tickets, and similar items are virtual game features. They have no cash value and are not transferable unless we explicitly allow it.
• Only verified levels are eligible to award PP. Verification and featured status are discretionary moderation decisions.
• Verified levels must generally include music, at least 15 obstacles, a road or clear path, an end trigger and proper ending, good design quality, and original or properly licensed content. Verification does not mean Arphros guarantees that all music or audio rights are cleared.
• We may adjust, revoke, reset, or recalculate stats, PP, coins, EXP, level status, badges, or virtual items if needed for balance, fraud prevention, bug fixes, moderation, or security.
• Do not exploit bugs, automation, alternate accounts, modified clients, or unauthorized tools to manipulate stats or rewards.

7. Premium Features, Supporter Benefits, and Payments

• Supporter contributions are voluntary donation-style support for Arphros service costs, development, moderation, hosting, and community operations. They are not payment for any user-uploaded song, level, audio, or copyrighted work.
• Supporter features may be processed by third-party payment providers or app stores. Their terms and payment rules may also apply.
• Unless required by law or by the payment provider, purchases, subscriptions, and virtual benefits are not refundable after they are delivered.
• Subscriptions must usually be cancelled through the platform or payment provider used to purchase them.
• Supporter benefits may change over time and may be suspended or removed if your account is banned, deleted, refunded, charged back, or used in violation of these Terms.
• We may correct pricing, entitlement, or transaction errors when discovered.

8. Conduct and Prohibited Behavior

• Do not cheat, hack, reverse engineer service protections, use unauthorized mods, automate gameplay, abuse bugs, or interfere with servers or other users.
• Do not harass, threaten, bully, stalk, impersonate, dox, or discriminate against others.
• Do not post NSFW, sexually explicit, hateful, racist, sexist, violent, exploitative, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate content.
• Do not spam, advertise, self-promote, send unsolicited links or QR codes, or attempt scams/phishing.
• Do not publish personal information about yourself or others.
• Do not evade bans, device bans, IP bans, rate limits, account restrictions, or moderation decisions.
• Do not use Arphros to violate any law or third-party right.

9. Moderation, Enforcement, and Appeals

• Admins and developers may review reports, logs, content, account activity, and other relevant records to enforce these Terms and community rules.
• Moderation actions may include warnings, content removal, hidden comments, level deletion, verification removal, stat resets, account suspension, account ban, device ban, IP ban, or other restrictions.
• AI moderation or automated systems may assist moderation, but final enforcement may also involve human review.
• We may preserve moderation records, ban reasons, deleted-level backups, and related evidence to protect the service and handle appeals.
• Ban appeals, issue reports, level verification requests, and copyright complaints should be submitted through our portal or by contacting us.
• We are not required to provide every detail of moderation evidence if doing so would compromise safety, privacy, anti-abuse systems, or another user's rights.

10. Copyright and Takedown Requests

• Music, sound recordings, audio samples, and other audio files embedded in uploaded levels are User Content. The uploader is responsible for having the rights needed to upload and share them.
• Before publishing a level, we may require uploaders to confirm that they own, licensed, or are otherwise legally permitted to share the included music, audio, art, and other assets.
• If you believe content on Arphros infringes your copyright, follow our Copyright Policy or contact us with the content URL or ID, your contact information, proof of ownership or authorization, and a statement describing the infringement.
• We may remove or restrict content while reviewing a copyright report.
• Users who repeatedly upload infringing content may be banned or restricted.
• False, abusive, or bad-faith copyright reports may result in account restrictions.

11. Third-Party Services

• Arphros may use third-party services such as hosting providers, database providers, analytics, AI moderation, Discord webhooks, app stores, payment processors, email providers, and support/reporting tools.
• Third-party services may have their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for third-party services that we do not control.
• Links to external sites, Discord, QQ, forms, documentation, app stores, or payment providers are provided for convenience and may be governed by separate terms.

12. Service Changes, Availability, and Data Loss

• Arphros is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis.
• We may update, change, suspend, limit, or discontinue any feature, server, content, account system, leaderboard, reward, or premium benefit at any time.
• We do not guarantee that Arphros will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, compatible with every device, or available in every region.
• You are responsible for keeping your own backups of creative work where possible. We are not responsible for lost levels, corrupted files, downtime, or data loss except where required by law.

13. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

• To the fullest extent permitted by law, Arphros and its developers, admins, contributors, and service providers disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied, or statutory.
• To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages, including lost data, lost profits, lost goodwill, service interruption, or unauthorized access.
• Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.
• Some jurisdictions do not allow certain disclaimers or limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

14. Termination

• You may stop using Arphros at any time.
• We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access if you violate these Terms, create risk for Arphros or other users, or if we are required to do so by law.
• After termination, some sections of these Terms will continue to apply, including User Content licenses already granted, moderation records, payment obligations, disclaimers, limitations of liability, and legal compliance sections.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms when the service, law, technology, or business needs change. Material updates will be posted on our website and/or app. Your continued use of Arphros after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

16. Governing Law and Disputes

Unless mandatory laws in your location require otherwise, these Terms are governed by the laws applicable where Arphros is operated, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before starting a formal dispute, please contact us first so we can try to resolve the issue informally.

17. Contact

For support, legal notices, copyright reports, privacy requests, or questions about these Terms, contact us at [email protected] or visit our Discord.