Terms of Service

These are the rules of the house. We've written them in plain English on purpose — you should be able to read the agreement you're entering without a law degree.

1 — What you're agreeing to

By creating an account or using Ligoscope — the iOS app, ligoscope.com, and any related services we operate (together, "the Service") — you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree with them, the Service isn't for you, and that's okay.

"We", "us" and "Ligoscope" refer to the operator of the Service. "You" means the person using it.

2 — Who can use Ligoscope

You must be at least 13 years old. When you register, the information you give us — your email, your username — must be yours and must be accurate, and you're expected to keep it that way. One person, one account: don't create multiple accounts, don't impersonate anyone, and don't use someone else's account.

3 — Your account is your responsibility

Keep your credentials to yourself and choose a real password. Everything that happens under your account is on you, so if you ever suspect someone else has gotten into it, tell us right away at hello@ligoscope.com. You can sign in with email, Apple or Google; whichever you choose, keep the email address on your account current — it's how we reach you for recovery and important notices.

4 — Your content stays yours

Everything you create on Ligoscope — reviews, diary entries, ratings, lists, comments, photos, your profile — is yours ("Your Content"). You keep ownership of all of it, always.

So that the Service can actually work, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, store, display and distribute Your Content within the Service, according to the visibility you chose for it. A review you set to Public can appear on public pages and in feeds; a Private entry stays private. This license also covers the operational plumbing — indexing, generating previews, serving your content to people you've shared it with — and ends for content you delete, except where it has already been legitimately shared by you or others under your chosen visibility.

Two things we ask of your writing: it must be your own (don't pass off someone else's words as yours), and if you quote someone, say who and keep it fair.

5 — How to behave

Ligoscope is a place for people who love film and television. Disagree with a review all you want — that's half the fun — but be decent about it. You must not post content that:

• harasses, threatens, demeans or defames another person;
• promotes hate or violence against people based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age or any similar attribute;
• is sexually explicit, or sexualizes minors in any form — we report apparent child exploitation to the relevant authorities;
• deliberately spreads misinformation, or is spam or a scam;
• infringes anyone's intellectual property or privacy;
• contains malware or anything designed to damage or hijack systems.

6 — What you must not do

Beyond the content rules, using the Service comes with a few hard lines. You must not:

• game the platform — coordinate review-bombing of a title or filmmaker, manufacture ratings, farm follows or likes to inflate an account, or evade a block someone has placed on you;
• rate or log a title you haven't watched in order to distort its numbers (rating things honestly badly is fine; rigging isn't);
• scrape, crawl or bulk-extract content from the Service, or republish any substantial part of it, without our written permission — your own data is always yours to export;
• probe, test or breach the Service's security, or access accounts or data that aren't yours;
• reverse engineer or decompile the app except where the law says we can't stop you;
• collect other users' information, solicit their personal details, or use the Service to send unsolicited bulk messages;
• file false or bad-faith reports against other members or their content;
• use the Service to build a competing product or dataset.

7 — Moderation

Reviews, comments, diary entries, bios, lists and images pass through an automated moderation check before publication and may be rejected if they appear to break section 5. You can report any profile, review or comment with the "Report" option, and block or mute anyone. We review reports and may remove content or restrict accounts at our discretion — without prior notice where the violation is serious. Where practical, we'll tell you what happened and why, and you can reply to us at hello@ligoscope.com if you think we got it wrong. Moderation is imperfect by nature; we don't pre-screen everything, and content posted by users is the responsibility of the person who posted it.

We have no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users. Reports are reviewed and acted upon within 24 hours: content that breaks these Terms or our community standards is removed, and the responsible account may be restricted or permanently ejected.

8 — AI features

Parts of Ligoscope run on artificial intelligence: moderation checks, personalized recommendations, taste-compatibility scoring, and optional writing assistance. These process your content and activity as described in the Privacy Policy. Anything AI-suggested is shown to you first and published only by your explicit action — Ligoscope never posts on your behalf. AI output can be wrong: a recommendation may miss, a taste match may be off, moderation may over- or under-flag. We keep improving it and promise no perfection.

9 — Pricing

Ligoscope is currently free, with every feature included. If we ever introduce paid features, three commitments hold: we will tell you clearly before anything changes, nothing you already use will be silently taken away and put behind a paywall, and any subscription will be cancellable at any time from your account or store settings, with pricing shown before you pay. Any paid tier would come with its own supplementary terms at the time.

10 — Our stuff

The Ligoscope name, logo, app, site design and our original editorial writing (including Ligo Lens) belong to us and are protected by intellectual-property law. These Terms give you the right to use the Service — not to copy, resell, publicly perform or commercially exploit it, and not to use our name or logo in a way that implies partnership or endorsement.

Film and series metadata, posters and streaming availability come from The Movie Database (TMDB) under their license and are not ours. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

11 — Third-party services

The Service links out to third parties — streaming providers, TMDB, social platforms you share to. Their sites and terms are their own; we don't control them and aren't responsible for what happens there.

12 — Copyright complaints

If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, email hello@ligoscope.com with: your name and contact details; the work you own; where the infringing material appears (a URL or precise description); a statement that you believe in good faith the use is unauthorized; and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and you are the owner or authorized to act for them. We take valid notices seriously and will remove infringing material. Knowingly false claims can make you liable for damages.

If your content was removed following a copyright notice and you believe this was a mistake, you may send a counter-notice to the same address with the same contact details and a statement, under penalty of perjury, explaining why the removal was in error. Accounts that repeatedly infringe copyright are terminated.

13 — Feedback

If you send us ideas or suggestions, thank you — genuinely. You agree we can use them freely, without payment or obligation, and that we may already be working on something similar.

14 — Leaving, and being asked to leave

You can delete your account at any time from Settings → Delete account, which permanently removes your data as described in the Privacy Policy — export first if you want to keep your history. We may suspend or terminate accounts that break these Terms; for serious violations (harassment, hate, illegal content, security attacks) that can happen without warning. Where practical we'll tell you why, and you can write to us if you believe we made a mistake. Sections that by their nature should survive — content licenses for already-shared content, liability limits, governing law — survive termination.

15 — Changes to the Service and these Terms

Ligoscope evolves; we may add, change or retire features, and occasionally we may need to suspend the Service for maintenance or security. We may also update these Terms — when the change is significant, we'll announce it in the app or by email and update the date at the top of this page. Continuing to use the Service after a change means you accept it; if you don't, deleting your account is always available to you.

16 — No warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." We work hard to keep it fast, accurate and online, but we can't promise it will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure at all times, and we can't vouch for every frame of metadata that arrives from third-party sources. To the maximum extent the law allows, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Nothing in these Terms limits rights that consumer-protection law in your country grants you and doesn't allow to be waived.

17 — Limits on our liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Ligoscope and its operator are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost data, profits or goodwill, arising from your use of — or inability to use — the Service. Where liability cannot be excluded, it is limited to the amount you paid us for the Service in the twelve months before the claim arose (which, while Ligoscope is free, means our liability is limited to the fullest extent the law allows).

18 — Indemnity

If your use of the Service in breach of these Terms causes a third party to bring a claim against us, you agree to cover the losses and reasonable costs we incur as a result, to the extent permitted by the law where you live.

19 — Disputes and governing law

If something goes wrong, talk to us first — most problems are fixable with one email to hello@ligoscope.com, and we commit to engaging with any complaint in good faith before anything formal happens. These Terms are governed by the laws applicable in the operator's place of business, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where the consumer law of your country of residence applies mandatorily and provides otherwise.

20 — The fine print about the fine print

If part of these Terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still stands. If we don't enforce a provision immediately, we haven't waived it. We may assign our rights and obligations under these Terms (for example, in a reorganization); you may not assign yours without our written consent. By using the Service you agree to receive required notices electronically — in the app or to your account email. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Ligoscope.