GalVoyage Terms of Use

Section 1 — Acceptance; relationship to other documents

1.1 These Terms of Use (the "Terms") constitute a binding agreement between you and the operator of GalVoyage ("we", "us", "our") governing your access to and use of the GalVoyage application and its associated web services (together, the "Service").

1.2 By installing, accessing, or using the Service, you accept these Terms and the Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. If you do not accept them, you must not use the Service.

1.3 You must be of the age at which the law of your jurisdiction permits you to enter into a binding agreement. The Service is not offered to, and is not to be used by, any person who has not attained that age; a parent or guardian may not accept these Terms on behalf of such a person for the purpose of making the Service available to that person.

1.4 Where the Service presents a further notice governing a particular feature (including the Restricted Content Notice), acceptance of that notice is additional to, and does not replace, acceptance of these Terms.

Section 2 — Definitions

2.1 "Service" means the GalVoyage service in all its distributions, including its mobile and web clients and its electronic digest.

2.2 "Operator" means the operator of GalVoyage ("we", "us", "our"). "User" means the natural person using the Service.

2.3 "Listing" means an entry within the Service concerning a published or announced work, comprising such of the title, release date, platform, publisher, cover image, description, classification, and outbound links as are available.

2.4 "Restricted Listing" means a Listing subject to the restricted content setting described in the Restricted Content Notice.

2.5 "Third-Party Source" means any database, publisher announcement, image server, or other service operated by a person other than the Operator from which information presented in the Service is obtained or by which it is hosted.

2.6 "Account" means the optional user account described in Section 4. "Digest" means the optional electronic digest subscription described in Section 4.

2.7 "Content" means all Listings, text, images, arrangement, software, and other material presented within the Service.

Section 3 — Nature and limits of the Service

3.1 The Service is an information and news service concerning visual novels. It presents release schedules, reference information concerning published works, and news and periodical digests reproduced under licence with attribution, compiled from licensed and publicly available sources.

3.2 The Service does not distribute software or game files, does not sell, resell, license, or sublicense any work, does not offer purchasing or payment services, does not process payment for any work, and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, or approved by any publisher or rights holder save where expressly stated.

3.3 The Service provides links to external sites, including stores, official sites, and databases. Such links open in the system browser of the device, outside the Service.

3.4 Information presented in the Service is compiled from Third-Party Sources, in part by automated means, and may contain errors, omissions, or delays. Release dates and other details are subject to change by their publishers without notice. Such information is provided for reference only; the publisher's own announcement is authoritative, and where the Service and the publisher differ, the publisher governs.

3.5 The Operator does not author Listing information, does not verify it exhaustively, and does not adopt it as its own statement.

Section 4 — Accounts, eligibility, and subscriptions

4.1 An Account is optional. The Service may be used without one.

4.2 If you create an Account, you agree to provide accurate information, to use only an email address or sign-in method that you are entitled to use, and to keep your credentials secure. You are responsible for activity occurring under your Account. Certain settings may be synchronized across your devices when you sign in, as described in the Privacy Policy.

4.3 The Digest is an optional subscription that requires an Account. Subscriptions take effect upon confirmation and may be cancelled at any time through the means provided in each message.

4.4 You may delete your Account at any time within the Service. Deletion removes your Account, your synchronized settings, and any subscription from the operator's primary storage; the limited retention and backups that may apply thereafter are described in the Privacy Policy.

Section 5 — Representations and undertakings of the User

By using the Service, you represent and warrant that:

(a) you are of the age described in Section 1.3;

(b) your use of the Service is lawful in the place where you are located, and you have satisfied yourself of that fact;

(c) the information you provide in connection with an Account is accurate and complete;

(d) you use the Service on your own behalf and for personal, non-commercial purposes; and

(e) you will comply with these Terms and with all law applicable to your use of the Service.

A representation found to be untrue entitles the Operator to suspend or terminate your access under Section 11, and does not relieve you of any obligation already accrued.

Section 6 — Acceptable use

6.1 You agree not to: (a) use the Service in violation of applicable law or these Terms; (b) access the Service by automated means, or extract, scrape, or bulk-download its Content or data, except as permitted by us in writing; (c) interfere with, disrupt, or circumvent any security or access-control measure of the Service; (d) reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Service, except to the extent such restriction is prohibited by law; (e) impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation; or (f) use the Service or its Content to develop a competing product or to train machine-learning systems without our written consent.

6.2 We may suspend or restrict access to the Service where we reasonably believe this Section has been breached or the integrity of the Service is threatened.

Section 7 — Content and intellectual property

7.1 Third-party content. Titles, artwork, trademarks, descriptions, and other reference information presented in the Service belong to their respective rights holders and are presented for identification and informational purposes only, with attribution to their sources. Nothing in these Terms transfers any right in such content to you or to us. The inclusion of any work in the Service does not imply any affiliation with, or endorsement by, its rights holder.

7.2 Our content. The Service, its design, its name and branding, and the compilation and arrangement of the material presented within it are our property or the property of our licensors and are protected by applicable intellectual property laws. Material reproduced under licence is presented with attribution to its source and remains subject to the terms of that licence.

7.3 Your license. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use the Service on devices that you own or control, for personal, non-commercial purposes. This license does not include any right to reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from the Service or its Content, except as expressly permitted by these Terms or by law.

7.4 User Materials. Where the Service invites you to submit a display name, a profile image, feedback, screenshots, contact details, or any other material (such material, "User Materials"), you grant the Operator a non-exclusive licence to host, to reproduce, and to present the User Materials within the Service and, in the case of feedback, to review it and to respond to it, in each case solely to the extent necessary for those purposes. That licence confers no ownership of User Materials upon the Operator, does not extend to the use of User Materials for advertising, and does not extend to the licensing of them to any third party for that party's own purposes.

7.5 Your responsibility for User Materials. In respect of each item of User Materials you submit, you represent and warrant that you are entitled to submit it, that it does not infringe the rights of any person, that it does not disclose the personal information of any other person without that person's consent, and that it does not contravene any applicable law. The Operator does not undertake to review User Materials, may decline, withhold, edit, or remove any of them at any time, and neither the exercise nor the non-exercise of that right imposes, or is evidence of, any general obligation of monitoring.

Section 8 — Third-party sources and outbound links

8.1 The Content presented in the Service is drawn from the following classes of Third-Party Source: (a) reference databases operated by third parties (including ymgal.games), from which Listings, classification markings, cover images, and profile information concerning characters, persons, and organizations are retrieved by the Operator's servers, images being relayed to your device through the Operator's servers, your device not connecting to those sources directly save where you open an outbound link; (b) news and periodical digests reproduced under licence from their publishers, hosted by the Operator and presented with attribution; (c) feeds that you add to the Service yourself, which are retrieved by your device directly from the source you specify, are governed by that source's own terms, and are not reviewed by the Operator; and (d) providers of sign-in, email delivery, and feedback processing services engaged by the Operator, which act upon the Operator's instructions and are not content sources.

8.2 Such Third-Party Sources operate under their own terms, which may additionally apply to your use of material obtained from them.

8.3 Outbound links lead to destinations controlled by third parties whose content is not controlled by the Operator, is not governed by these Terms, and may differ materially from what the corresponding Listing describes. Third-party sites are governed by their own terms and privacy practices; we are not responsible for their content or practices.

8.4 Dependence upon Third-Party Sources. The availability, accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of any Third-Party Source, and the terms upon which it supplies information (including any licence term, format, or interface), may change or be withdrawn at any time and without notice to the Operator. The Operator may suspend, limit, replace, or discontinue its reliance upon any Third-Party Source, or upon any feature that depends upon one, at any time, and is under no obligation to provide any substitute. Where material originating from a Third-Party Source is alleged to be unlawful or to infringe any right, responsibility for that material rests upon its source and not upon the Operator, without prejudice to Section 18.

8.5 We do not transmit any of your information to the Third-Party Sources from which the Content is drawn, save as described in the Privacy Policy.

Section 9 — Data and privacy

Your use of the Service involves the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information as described in the Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. Nothing in these Terms limits your rights under the Privacy Policy or under applicable privacy law.

Section 10 — Fees and advertising

10.1 The Service is currently provided free of charge. We may introduce paid features in the future, in which case these Terms will be updated, and any purchase will additionally be governed by the terms presented at the time of purchase and by the terms of the applicable platform.

10.2 Promotional placements within the Service are managed by us directly and are identified as such. The Service does not integrate third-party advertising networks and does not perform behavioural targeting.

Section 11 — Changes, suspension, and termination of the Service

11.1 You may stop using the Service at any time.

11.2 We may modify, suspend, limit, or discontinue the Service, in whole or in part, at any time, and may suspend or terminate your access to the Service for breach of these Terms, for operational or legal reasons, or upon discontinuation of the Service, giving notice where reasonably practicable. We may further decline to provide, or restrict or withdraw, the Service or any part of it to or in respect of any person, where we consider it necessary in order to protect the integrity or availability of the Service, the rights or safety of any other User or of any rights holder, or compliance with applicable law.

11.3 Upon termination we may withhold, correct, or remove any Content, and may delete your Account in accordance with the Privacy Policy.

11.4 Neither party is liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by an event beyond its reasonable control, including natural disaster, war, civil disturbance, riot, strike or other industrial action, failure or interruption of electrical power or of telecommunications or network services, the failure, suspension, or interruption of any Third-Party Source or other upstream service upon which the Service depends, and any order, act, or measure of a government or of a court. Where such an event occurs, the affected party's obligations are suspended to the extent and for the duration of the prevention. Nothing in this Section limits any liability that cannot be limited by applicable law, nor any right conferred upon a consumer which that consumer cannot waive.

11.5 The provisions of these Terms that survive termination are those listed in Section 21.

Section 12 — No warranty

12.1 The Service and all Content are furnished "as is" and "as available".

12.2 To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we and our affiliates, officers, contractors, and service providers disclaim all warranties, conditions, representations, and terms of every kind, whether express, implied, statutory, collateral, or arising from any course of dealing or usage of trade, including without limitation any warranty of merchantability, merchantable quality, fitness for a particular purpose, durability, title, quiet enjoyment, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and non-infringement, and any warranty that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free; that defects will be corrected; or that any information presented in the Service is accurate, complete, or current.

12.3 Section 12.2 does not exclude any warranty, condition, or legal quality that applicable consumer protection legislation declares cannot be excluded, and does not relieve the Operator of liability for its own act or omission or that of its representative where the legislation applicable to you prohibits such relief. Where you are a consumer in Quebec, the legal warranties conferred by the Consumer Protection Act (chapter P-40.1) apply notwithstanding Section 12.2. Where the law of the province or territory in which you reside implies a warranty as to the quality of services that cannot be excluded by contract, that warranty applies notwithstanding Section 12.2.

Section 13 — Limitation of liability

Statement for consumers in Quebec, given immediately before the stipulations that follow: the stipulations of Sections 13.1, 13.2, 13.2bis, 13.3, and 13.4 below, and the stipulation of Section 25 as to the law governing these Terms and as to the forum for their enforcement, are prohibited by the Consumer Protection Act (chapter P-40.1) and do not apply to a consumer in Quebec, who may bring proceedings before the courts of Quebec under the law of Quebec.

13.1 To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we and our affiliates, officers, contractors, and service providers shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, aggravated, or punitive damages, nor for any loss of data, profits, revenue, goodwill, opportunity, anticipated saving, or other intangible loss, howsoever arising, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, and whether or not we were advised of the possibility of such loss.

13.2 To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we shall not be liable for any loss, claim, proceeding, or consequence arising out of or in connection with any reliance on information presented in the Service, any act or omission of any Third-Party Source (including any error, delay, or omission in the material it supplies, the cessation or interruption of its operation, any restriction or rate limit it applies, any change to or withdrawal of the terms or licence upon which it supplies material, and any refusal, withdrawal, or restriction of access directed at the Operator), any content encountered upon any destination reached by an outbound link, any interruption, delay, suspension, or discontinuance of the Service or of any Third-Party Source, any loss, corruption, or desynchronization of data or cached content stored on or in connection with the Service, or any breach by you of these Terms.

13.2bis Subject to any limitation period that applicable mandatory law prescribes and that cannot be shortened by agreement, no claim arising out of or in connection with the Service or these Terms shall be brought against the Operator unless it is brought within the shorter of (a) the period permitted by applicable mandatory law and (b) one year from the date upon which the person bringing it first knew, or reasonably ought to have known, of the event giving rise to it.

13.3 To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, our total aggregate liability in respect of all claims arising out of or in connection with the Service or these Terms shall not exceed the greater of the amount you paid us for the Service in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim and fifty Canadian dollars (CAD $50).

13.4 The limitations in this Section apply to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law even where a remedy is found to fail of its essential purpose, and survive termination of these Terms. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law, including liability for fraud, willful misconduct, or gross negligence.

Section 14 — Indemnity

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you shall indemnify and hold harmless the Operator and its directors, officers, employees, contractors, and agents from and against all claims, demands, proceedings, losses, damages, liabilities, penalties, costs, and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of or in connection with any breach by you of these Terms, any unlawful use of the Service by you, any breach by you of your representations in Section 5, or the submission by you of any User Materials that breaches Section 7.5. The Operator reserves the right to assume the exclusive conduct of the defence and settlement of any matter subject to this indemnity, and to conduct that defence and settlement with counsel of its own choosing. You shall not settle, compromise, or admit any liability in respect of any matter subject to this indemnity without the Operator's prior written consent, shall promptly notify the Operator of any such matter of which you become aware, and shall cooperate with the Operator in the defence of it, including by making available such records and assistance as are reasonably requested.

Section 15 — Non-waivable rights

15.1 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited by applicable law, or affects any right conferred upon a consumer which that consumer cannot waive.

15.2 Where the law of the province or territory in which you reside confers consumer protection rights that cannot be waived by contract, those rights apply notwithstanding anything in these Terms. Where you are a consumer in Quebec, the Consumer Protection Act (chapter P-40.1) applies, any stipulation in these Terms that is prohibited by that Act does not apply to you, and, in accordance with that Act, the choice of law and forum stipulated in Section 25 does not apply to consumers in Quebec. Where the law applicable to you confers rights that cannot be waived by contract, those rights prevail over any inconsistent provision of these Terms to the extent of the inconsistency, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer-protection right you enjoy under the law of your habitual residence.

Section 16 — Minors

The Service is not directed to children. The age limits of Section 1.3 apply. Certain Listings are subject to content filters, as described in Section 17 of these Terms. The Operator does not knowingly collect personal information from children; reference is made to the Privacy Policy.

Section 17 — Content filters

17.1 Filters by default. Certain listings in the Service ("restricted listings") are subject to content filters that are on by default. With the filters on, the cover image, description, follow action, and outbound links of a restricted listing are withheld, and restricted listings are omitted from search results, with the number omitted disclosed. The electronic digest is arranged under the presentation rules of this Section and of the Restricted Content Notice, and the restricted status of a listing is applied to it in the digest in the same manner as within the Service. A listing is treated as restricted when its source marks the work as intended for adults, when our review does, or when the source does not say; we treat the unknown as restricted.

17.2 Adjusting the filters. The filters may be turned off within the Service only after the Restricted Content Notice, which forms part of these Terms, has been made available to you and you have confirmed that you have read and agree to the statements it sets out. Turning them back on requires no confirmation. The choice is stored only on the device where you make it and is not attached to your account or synchronized.

17.3 Your representations. In turning the filters off you represent that you have reached the age at which the law of the place where you are located permits access to information about works intended for adults; that such access is lawful where you are; that you act for yourself and not for a minor; that you will not let a minor use the device while the filters are off; and that you accept the consequences of your choice under the law that applies to you.

17.4 No age verification. The confirmation is a self-declaration. We do not verify age or identity by any means, on the device or on our servers. Our servers withhold restricted material by default and release it only to requests that carry your device's declaration; they do not verify who made it. You must not rely on the Service to keep minors from adult-oriented information; use your device's parental controls.

17.5 What the filters do not do. The filters classify listings, not works, using third-party data and our own review, and are not guaranteed to be complete or correct in either direction. Titles, publisher names, and dates remain visible with the filters on. We apply the exclusion standard of the Restricted Content Notice upon the information available to us, exclude where that standard is met, and exclude where we are uncertain; we do not represent that every item meeting that standard has been identified, and no undertaking is given that material unlawful in Canada will in every instance have been identified and withheld before presentation. Any person aware of material that may be unlawful may notify us under Section 18, and we will remove it upon becoming aware of it. Listings whose titles contain explicit sexual language, and listings that we have individually excluded, are not presented in any mode; turning the filters off cannot reveal them. The descriptions of listings are presented as supplied by their source save as this Section and the Restricted Content Notice provide.

17.6 Third-party sites. Links open sites we do not control. Those sites may display adult content or apply their own age gates regardless of your setting in the Service.

17.7 Reprinted news. News and digests are reprinted from their publishers and may refer to or depict works intended for adults as part of industry coverage. They are not subject to the filters except as stated in the Restricted Content Notice.

17.8 Responsibility. The confirmation, the setting, and any consequence of turning the filters off are your sole responsibility. The Service is an information service and is not an adult product. Sections 6 (representations and undertakings of the User), 13 (no warranty), 14 (limitation of liability), and 15 (indemnity) of the Restricted Content Notice are incorporated into these Terms and apply to the content filters, to the setting, and to the consequences of adjusting them.

Restricted Content Notice

Section 18 — Notices from rights holders; removal and correction

18.1 If you are a rights holder, or are authorized to act for one, and believe that Content in the Service infringes your rights or is presented inaccurately, you may notify us at the address in Section 29. Please identify the Content concerned, state the basis of your claim and the action you request, and provide contact details sufficient for a reply.

18.2 We will review notices in good faith and, where appropriate, remove, correct, or modify the presentation of the Content within a reasonable time. We may withhold Content while a notice is under review. Action taken upon a notice does not constitute an admission of any kind. The procedure in this Section is established voluntarily by the Operator. It is not, and does not purport to be, the statutory notice regime applicable to internet service providers, hosts, or information location tools under the Copyright Act, to which the Operator is not subject, and compliance with any format prescribed by that regime is not required of any person giving notice.

18.3 Counter-notice. Where, upon a notice under this Section, Content is withheld, corrected, or removed, and the Operator is able to identify a User to whom that Content was or would have been presented, the Operator may so inform that User and inform the notifying party that this has been done. That User may, within a reasonable period and in writing at the same address, submit a counter-notice stating the grounds upon which the User contends that the Content does not infringe the rights concerned or is accurately presented, and consenting to the disclosure of the User's contact details to the notifying party for the purpose of resolving the dispute between them. Upon a counter-notice the Operator may, in its discretion and without any obligation to act, restore, continue to withhold, correct, or remove the Content, and may instead leave the parties to resolve the matter between themselves. Neither the receipt of a notice nor of a counter-notice, nor any action or inaction taken upon either, constitutes any determination of the rights of any person, any admission of liability, or any waiver by the Operator.

18.4 We may withhold, correct, or remove any Content at any time, including upon notice from a rights holder or public authority or upon our own review, without prior notice to you.

Section 19 — Severability

Where any provision of these Terms is held invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, that provision is to be severed to the minimum extent necessary and construed so as to give effect to the intention of the parties to the greatest extent permitted, and the remaining provisions continue in full force.

Section 20 — No waiver

No failure or delay in exercising any right constitutes a waiver of it, and no single or partial exercise precludes any further exercise. A waiver is effective only if given in writing and only in respect of the instance for which it is given.

Section 21 — Survival

Sections 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28 survive termination of these Terms or cessation of your use of the Service.

Section 22 — Assignment

You may not assign or transfer any right or obligation under these Terms. We may assign these Terms in whole or in part in connection with a reorganisation, merger, acquisition, or transfer of the Service or the business to which it relates, provided your rights are not diminished.

Section 23 — Third-party beneficiaries

23.1 Save as expressly provided, these Terms confer no right upon any person who is not a party to them.

23.2 Where you obtain the Service through a third-party platform, that platform's terms also apply. The platform provider is not a party to these Terms, has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the Service, and is not responsible for addressing any claim relating to the Service. For the avoidance of doubt, in respect of the Service the platform provider gives no warranty of any kind, and any claim arising from or relating to product liability, regulatory compliance, consumer protection, or the infringement of any intellectual property right is addressed by the Operator and not by the platform provider, save where applicable law provides otherwise.

23.3 Apple Inc. and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms in respect of the Service as obtained from the App Store and are entitled to enforce them against you.

Section 24 — Notices and service

Notices to the Operator, including complaints, requests for correction, and notices from rights holders, are to be sent to the address in Section 29 and are deemed given upon receipt. We may give notice to you within the Service, and by email where you hold a subscription, and such notice is deemed given upon dispatch.

Section 25 — Governing law and jurisdiction

Statement for consumers in Quebec, given immediately before the stipulation that follows: the stipulation of this Section is prohibited by the Consumer Protection Act (chapter P-40.1) and does not apply to a consumer in Quebec, who may bring proceedings before the courts of Quebec under the law of Quebec.

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or to the Service are governed by the laws of Canada, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, and you agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Canada, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer-protection right you enjoy under the law of your habitual residence.

Section 26 — Entire agreement; headings

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any notice incorporated by reference, constitute the entire agreement between you and us concerning the Service and supersede any prior statement concerning it. Headings are for reference only and do not affect construction.

Section 27 — Amendments to these Terms

27.1 We may amend these Terms from time to time. An amendment is made by publishing the amended Terms within the Service together with their effective date; the effective date stated above is updated accordingly.

27.2 We will give notice of a material amendment within the Service, and, where you hold a subscription then held with us, may additionally give that notice by email to the address associated with that subscription. Save where applicable law requires a form of notice that this Section does not provide, that notice is given in the manner described in this Section and in Section 24, and the absence of any other form of notice does not affect the effectiveness of an amendment.

27.3 Your continued use of the Service after an amendment takes effect constitutes acceptance of the amended Terms. If you do not accept an amendment, you must stop using the Service; you may delete your Account as described in Section 4, and the provisions listed in Section 21 survive.

27.4 Nothing in this Section overrides any right that applicable mandatory law gives you to refuse an amendment, to receive it in a particular manner or in a particular language, or to be released from these Terms upon refusing it. Where the law applicable to a consumer requires the consumer's express consent to an amendment, or requires that notice of it be given in a particular manner, that law prevails over this Section.

Section 28 — Language

A French version of these Terms is made available within the Service before acceptance to any User in Quebec, and to any other User who requests it, at the address in Section 29 and within the Service, and may be obtained there at any time. The French version is equally authentic with this English version. Where a User, having been furnished with the French version, expressly elects to be bound by the English version, the parties have by that express election required that these Terms and all related documents be drawn up in English. Une version française des présentes conditions est disponible au sein du Service, avant leur acceptation, à tout utilisateur situé au Québec, et à tout autre utilisateur qui en fait la demande, à l'adresse indiquée à l'article 29 et au sein du Service; elle peut y être obtenue en tout temps. Lorsque l'utilisateur, après avoir reçu la version française, choisit expressément d'être lié par la version anglaise, les parties ont par ce choix exprès exigé que les présentes conditions et tous les documents connexes soient rédigés en anglais.

Section 29 — Contact

Questions regarding these Terms, requests for correction, and notices from rights holders may be directed to: contact@galvoyage.com