Skip to main content

Terms of Service

The Audiofic Archive is a home and archive of podfics - which we define as any fanwork created in an audial medium. This means that we also welcome filk, freetalk, etc.

Central concerns are stability, accessibility and scope.

  • Stability - We make regular backups of all files (podfic recordings) and databases (index and metadata). The audiofic archive is hosted by squidge.org, which is a non-profit in the hopes that the burden of maintaining the site now and in the future does not lie on a single person’s shoulders.
  • Accessibility - We ask that all files are available in an mp3 format for technological ease of access; and we strive to apply accessible website practices to the archive’s interface. If you are having trouble accessing the website in any way, shape or form we want to know, and we want to fix it.
  • Scope - Content in the Audiofic Archive is not pre-vetted, rated or picked over. No fandoms, pairings or genres are excluded - we just ask that you abide by our TOS and ensure your work is relevant to fandom.

The mission of the Audiofic Archive is driven by the following values:

  • That secondary fanworks such as podfic are an important part of our creative culture, and that they are central to honoring our own and each others’ efforts and ingenuity as fans.
  • That reading, watching, listening and viewing fanwork is itself a type of fanwork; the reader’s role is a central one, and contributes to the fannish community.
  • That a diversity of source, voice, language and point of view make our experience richer.

Contents

General terms

  1. Agreement: The Audiofic Archive hosts and shares content by fans and for fans. Our Content Policy and Privacy Policy are part of these Terms of Service (TOS). By submitting a work/series, attaching any files to that work, signing up to the website and/or accessing content on the Audiofic Archive (or content hosted with us that is embedded elsewhere), you are affirming that you will comply with and assent to the TOS.
  2. Entirety of agreement: These Terms of Service are the entire agreement between you and the Audiofic Archive and govern your use of our services. This agreement replaces all prior agreements between you and the Audiofic Archive.
  3. Jurisdiction: [TODO: Where is the audiofic archive legally based?]
  4. Non-severability: Our (The Audiofic Archive team) failure to enforce any part of this TOS will not waive our ability to enforce it.
  5. Limitation on claims: You agree that, regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to any use of the Audiofic Archive or its TOS must be filed within one year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred.
  6. No assignment: These TOS are personal to you. You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these TOS to any other person or entity, and any attempted assignment or transfer is void.

Updates to the Terms of Service

From time to time we will update our Terms of Service, you can learn about these changes by visiting the Audiofic Archive. We can update our Terms of Service, Content Policy and Privacy Policy at any time. Changes to the TOS will be announced via a site-wide banner and visible on this & the related pages, we will not alter the agreement between us via emails or other communication.

Potential Problems with the Audiofic Archive

  1. The Audiofic Archive provides services on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We do not warrant (as in, make a promise) that our services will meet your requirements, be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free; or that the results you get from using our services will be accurate, reliable or satisfactory to you.
  2. If we learn of a breach which compromises the security or confidentiality of the personal information of Audiofic Archive users, we will notify affected users and the relevant supervisory authorities as required by law as soon as possible.
  3. Any material you access through the Audiofic Archive in any way is at your own risk. You are solely responsible for any damage or loss of data that results from accessing any such material.
  4. The Audiofic Archive expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including (but not limited to) the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. The TOS govern your use of the Audiofic Archive, and therefore no communication from anyone associated with the Audiofic Archive will create any warranty that isn't expressly stated in the TOS.
  5. You expressly agree that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the Audiofic Archive will not be liable to you for any damages of any kind (even if the Audiofic Archive has been advised of the possibility of such damages) resulting from the Audiofic Archive, including but not limited to your use of or inability to use Audiofic Archive; unauthorized access to or changes in Content or information you submit; and the actions and statements of third parties who use the Audiofic Archive.
  6. You agree that the Audiofic Archive will not be liable to you or any third party for any limitations on, or termination of, your access to the Audiofic Archive. The Audiofic Archive may change, put on hiatus, restrict or prohibit access to, or end the Audiofic Archive or parts of its services at any time.
  7. You agree that the Audiofic Archive shall not be liable to you for any claim arising out of Content you make available, your connection to the Audiofic Archive, your use of the Audiofic Archive or its TOS, or your violation of anyone else's rights. In other words, the Audiofic Archive is not liable to you for allowing you to post, access, or download Content, or use or interact with the Audiofic Archive. The Audiofic Archive does not assume whatever legal risks you face by posting, accessing, or doing other things with Content.

Content you access when using the Audiofic Archive

  1. The Audiofic Archive or users of its services may provide links to sites that are owned or controlled by third parties, and may use such sites to communicate information about the Audiofic Archive. If you follow links away from the Audiofic Archive, you should review those sites' terms and privacy policies, which may differ from ours. The Audiofic Archive has no control over any third-party sites or their terms of use or privacy policies, and you agree that the Audiofic Archive is not responsible for and does not endorse their content, terms, or availability.
  2. You understand that the Audiofic Archive does not prescreen Content or review it for purposes of compliance with the TOS. This includes (but is not limited to) a podfic’s audio, summary, notes, graphics, tags, or any other material. Content is the sole responsibility of the submitter. You understand that using the Audiofic Archive may expose you to material that is offensive, atrocious, immoral, obscene, triggering, blasphemous, bigoted, erroneous, or objectionable in other ways.
  3. You recognize that the Audiofic Archive does not endorse Content on the Audiofic Archive in any way, except when it appears as an official statement on one of our static pages. Moderators or volunteers of the Audiofic Archive are not acting in an official capacity when they post podfics, or fanworks on this or other sites.

What we do with content

We (the Audiofic Archive) do not claim any copyright or ownership of your Content. However, part of running the site responsibly and ensuring that we do not suffer data loss is ensuring that we make multiple backup copies on servers which may be located anywhere in the world.

  1. You agree that we can make the aforementioned backup copies and show your content to other people. Specifically, by submitting content you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive licence to make your content available.
  2. The licence you grant us only exists for as long as you choose to continue to include such content on the Audiofic Archive, subject to the exception in the next paragraph. It will terminate in a reasonable time after you (or the Audiofic Archive) removes your content from the archive. We will always strive to make your content unavailable as soon as possible if you choose to delete it - but if the content is under an account you do not control you may be unable to delete that content. We will always deal with such situations on a case-by-case basis, especially in light of the previous process where archivists uploaded content on your behalf. Although removed content will not be publicly available through the Audiofic Archive, we may retain backup copies for longer periods for legal and disaster recovery purposes. These copies may be accessible to administrators. If you delete content from the Audiofic Archive, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to restore it at your request.
  3. You may choose to upload content to the Audiofic Archive that you do not completely control. Situations where this may occur include: you transfer ownership of a work to the orphan_account - permanently giving up ownership, you delete your account and leave your works up under a reader name tag that you no longer claim, you asked us to upload a work on a legacy version of the site on your behalf under a reader tag that you do not have ownership of. In the latter two cases, if you can prove that you have ownership of the fannish identity the work is marked as owned by elsewhere or you have access to an email/account where you previously contacted us to have a work uploaded we will allow you to claim these works at any time.
  4. You acknowledge and agree that the Audiofic Archive may preserve content and may disclose content if required to do so by law or in the other good-faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with legal processes; enforce the TOS; respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third parties; or protect the rights, property or personal safety of the Audiofic Archive, users of the Audiofic Archive’s services or the public. Refer to the Privacy Policy for details about when we may preserve and/or disclose your Personal Information.

What you can’t do

You agree not to use the Audiofic Archive:

  1. to make any content available that violates the Content Policy;
  2. to impersonate any person or entity, or to falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
  3. to forge or otherwise manipulate identifiers (such as email headers or other information intended to route or authenticate content) in order to disguise the origin of any content transmitted to or through the Audiofic Archive, our servers, networks or services;
  4. to conduct any commercial activity, whether for direct or indirect commercial advantage, including making available any advertising, spam or solicitation, or scraping content in order to commercialise it;
  5. to make available any material that contains software viruses or other computer code, files, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer, hardware, or telecommunications equipment;
  6. to interfere with or disrupt the Audiofic Archive, any Audiofic Archive hosted content, or any services, sites, servers or networks connected with the Audiofic Archive;
  7. to create an account if you are an Age-Barred Individual; 
  8. to break any law that applies to you, including any rules or regulations having the force of law. Each user is responsible for knowing the laws of their own country.

Registration and email addresses

  1. As part of your registration, you agree to provide an accurate and current email address and to update the address as necessary. If your email address is inaccurate or not current, we may suspend your account.
  2. By registering or otherwise using an email address in connection with the Audiofic Archive, you assert that the email address is yours and that we may lawfully communicate with you as otherwise provided in the TOS.

Age Policy

The Audiofic Archive does not knowingly solicit or collect information from Age-Barred Individuals. Age-Barred Individuals are:

  1. individuals under the age of thirteen, and
  2. individuals under the age of sixteen who are not old enough in their country of residence or citizenship, to consent to the processing of personal data. This includes individuals under the age of sixteen who are residents or citizens of:
    1. a European Union country where the processing of Special Categories of Personal Data from children of that age requires the consent of a parent of legal guardian, or
    2. any country (including a European Economic Area country) which does not allow the processing of personal data from children of that age without written permission from a parent or legal guardian.

Age-Barred Individuals are not allowed to have an account or upload content to the Audiofic Archive. By submitting content to the Audiofic Archive, you confirm that you are not an Age-Barred Individual.

If Audiofic Archive administrators determine that an Age-Barred Individual has created an account or uploaded content, they may suspend or delete the account, hide or delete the content, or take other appropriate action to address the matter.

If you are a child under the age of thirteen and not a resident or citizen of the European Union, you may ask your parent or legal guardian to upload your Content through their account.

Abuse Policy

We do not prescreen content for violations of the Terms of Service, including violations of the Content Policy. Complaints are investigated only when they are submitted through the appropriate channels and with the appropriate information.

  1. Submitting a complaint

Complaints may be submitted to the Audiofic Archive via the main site contact form, except for Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices filed by the copyright owner or their legal representative. DMCA notices must be submitted to jinjurlymods@squidge.org. [TODO: DMCA policy link]

  1. Treatment of complaints

Complaints are covered by the Privacy Policy.

  1. Resolution of complaints

When Audiofic Archive administrators determine that content needs to be removed, it may be hidden from public view or removed from the Audiofic Archive. We will contact the owner(s) of any content as soon as possible.

If the content that needs to be removed includes potentially legitimate fanwork, the default will be to hide the work while we resolve the issue with the owner(s). We reserve the right at any time to determine necessary exceptions to this rule, which may include repeated violations of the TOS, any violations of the Illegal and Inappropriate Content Policy, or any circumstances where we reasonably believe that the content is unlawful.

When content is hidden from public view, Audiofic Archive administrators may identify the nature of the problem with the content and set a deadline for voluntary removal of the violating material. If the creator does not remove that material within the given deadline, Audiofic Archive administrators may permanently remove the content. Whenever content is removed via this process, we will allow users the opportunity to download copies of any of their files scheduled for deletion before the content is permanently removed.

Audiofic Archive administrators may also determine that tags/metadata need to be added to or edited on a work, and may add or edit those tags. For more information, please refer to the Mandatory Tags Policy.

  1. Penalties

Violations of the TOS may result in warnings or suspensions for all accounts owned by the offending user. The determination of appropriate penalties, including the length of any suspensions is subject to the discretion of the Audiofic Archive administrators. Our discretion will be informed by the nature of the violation and the behaviour of the user.

We may determine that we need to remove content to resolve a threatened or pending lawsuit or to mitigate other liability. If so, we will remove the content. Unless said content was submitted by an Age-Barred Individual or otherwise violates the TOS, removal for such reasons will not lead to a suspension.

A suspended user’s non-violating content will not be automatically removed unless the user is an Age-Barred Individual or has violated the Illegal and Inappropriate Content Policy. Suspended users retain the right to delete or orphan their works by contacting Audiofic Archive administrators.

A suspended user may not post or edit content or create an account while they are suspended. A user who was suspended solely due to age may post content or create an account once they are no longer an Age-Barred Individual.

These Terms of service are based on the AO3 terms of service which is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The same applies to these terms.