Terms and Conditions

Last updated: [date you publish this]

These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") govern your access to and use of Lecture Ear (the "Service"), operated by [your name or business name] ("we," "us," or "our"). By creating an account or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you don't agree, don't create an account or use the Service.

1. What Lecture Ear is

Lecture Ear is a note-taking and study tool. It transcribes spoken audio you choose to capture, generates AI-assisted answers, structured notes, flashcards, games, and quizzes from that content and from files you attach, and lets you organize and store notes, files, and study materials you create. The Service is provided for educational support purposes and does not guarantee any particular grade, test score, or academic outcome.

2. Eligibility and minors

You must be able to form a binding contract to use the Service. If you are under the age of majority in your jurisdiction (generally 18 in the United States), you may only use the Service with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian, or through a school or program that has authorized your use of it. If you are a parent or guardian permitting a minor to use the Service, you agree to these Terms on their behalf.

3. Your responsibility for how you use it

It is your responsibility, as the user, to comply with your school's, institution's, and instructor's policies regarding recording, transcribing, or using electronic devices during class or in any other setting where you use the Service. Lecture Ear and its creators are not responsible for any academic, disciplinary, legal, or other consequences arising from your use of the Service, including consequences related to recording or transcribing a lecture, meeting, or conversation without required permission.

You are solely responsible for obtaining any consent required by law or institutional policy before recording or transcribing anyone else's speech. Some jurisdictions require the consent of all parties to a recorded conversation ("two-party consent" or "all-party consent" laws) — it's on you to know and follow the rules that apply to where you are.

4. Accounts

• You must provide an accurate email address and keep your password secure.
• You're responsible for all activity that happens under your account.
• We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms or applicable law, or that we reasonably believe pose a risk to the Service or other users.
• You may not create an account using false information, impersonate another person, or use the Service through automated means (bots, scripts) rather than as an individual human user.

5. Subscriptions, billing, and payment

• New accounts start with a free trial period. No payment method is required to start the trial, and nothing is charged during it.
• Once the trial ends (or if you choose to subscribe before it ends), you'll be charged the price shown at checkout for your chosen billing period (monthly or annual), through our payment processor, Stripe. We never see or store your full card details ourselves.
• Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period at the then-current price, until you cancel.
• You can cancel anytime through the billing portal linked from your account. Cancelling stops future renewals but doesn't refund the current billing period except as described in our Refund Policy below.
• We may change subscription prices going forward. If we do, we'll make reasonable efforts to let existing subscribers know before a price change takes effect on their next renewal.
• You're responsible for any taxes applicable to your subscription in your jurisdiction.

6. Refund policy

Except where required by applicable law, subscription fees are non-refundable once charged, including for partial billing periods after a cancellation. If you believe you were charged in error — for example, a duplicate charge or a charge after you'd already canceled — contact us and we'll look into it in good faith.

7. AI-generated content

Transcripts, answers, structured notes, flashcards, matching games, quizzes, and any other AI-generated content may contain errors, omissions, or inaccuracies. This content is provided to support studying, not as a substitute for attending class, reading assigned material, or verifying facts through reliable sources. You are responsible for how you use AI-generated content, including for graded academic work, where you should follow your institution's academic integrity policies. The Service may produce similar or identical output for different users studying similar material — that alone doesn't mean anything was copied from another user.

How your content is processed

To generate answers, notes, and study materials, the transcript, notes, and files you provide are sent to Anthropic (the maker of the Claude AI models the Service uses) for processing. Anthropic acts as our service provider for this purpose. We do not train our own AI models on your content, and as of the date of these Terms, Anthropic's standard commercial API terms do not use customer-submitted data to train their models either — but Anthropic's own terms, not these Terms, govern exactly how they handle data submitted through their API. If that ever changes, or if we add other third-party AI or processing providers, we'll update this section to reflect it.

8. Your content and the license you grant us

You retain ownership of the audio, transcripts, notes, and files you submit to the Service ("Your Content"). You grant us a limited license to store, process, transmit, and display Your Content solely as necessary to operate and provide the Service to you — including sending it to Anthropic as described above. We do not use Your Content for advertising, marketing, or resale, and we don't claim ownership over it. You're responsible for making sure you have the right to submit any content you upload, including files, slides, and photos that may belong to someone else (like a professor's slide deck) — using the Service to help you personally study from material you already have lawful access to is the intended use; redistributing someone else's copyrighted material through the Service is not something we permit or take responsibility for.

9. Our intellectual property

The Service itself — its code, design, branding, and the "Lecture Ear" name and logo — is our property or licensed to us, and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other applicable laws. Except for what you need to use the Service as intended, you may not copy, modify, reverse-engineer, or redistribute any part of the Service without our permission.

10. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service to record or transcribe anyone without the consent required by law or institutional policy;
• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose, or in a way that infringes someone else's rights;
• Attempt to bypass usage limits, security measures, or access controls;
• Use automated tools (bots, scrapers) to access the Service, other than normal browser use;
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the Service, except as permitted by law;
• Resell, sublicense, or share paid access to the Service without our permission;
• Upload material that is unlawful, infringing, or that you don't have the right to share; or
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or attempt to access another user's account or data.

11. Copyright complaints (DMCA)

If you believe material available through the Service infringes your copyright, contact us at [your contact email] with: (1) a description of the copyrighted work; (2) a description and location of the allegedly infringing material within the Service; (3) your contact information; (4) a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use isn't authorized; and (5) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and that you're authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf. We'll respond to valid notices in accordance with applicable law.

12. Third-party links and services

The Service may reference or link to third-party services (like Stripe for payment, or Anthropic for AI processing). We aren't responsible for the content, policies, or practices of third-party services, and your use of them is governed by their own terms, not these Terms.

13. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, reliability, or fitness for a particular purpose. We don't guarantee the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that transcription or AI-generated content will be accurate. We don't guarantee any particular academic outcome from using the Service.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of data, academic standing, or opportunity, arising from your use of or inability to use the Service — including, without limitation, any disciplinary or legal consequences arising from how, where, or when you chose to use it. To the extent our liability can't be excluded, it's limited to the amount you paid us in the three (3) months before the event giving rise to the claim.

15. Indemnification

You agree to defend and hold us harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of your use of the Service, Your Content, or your violation of these Terms or of someone else's rights.

16. Termination

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms, without prior notice where we reasonably believe that's necessary to protect the Service or other users.

17. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date and, where practical, let existing users know. Continuing to use the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

18. Governing law and disputes

This whole section is a placeholder. Deciding how disputes get resolved — which state's law applies, whether disputes go to court or mandatory arbitration, whether class actions are waived — is a real strategic and legal decision, not something to default into by copying another company's choice. A simple starting point many small services use is: these Terms are governed by the laws of [your state], and any dispute not resolved informally may be brought in the state or federal courts located in [your county/state]. If you want a mandatory arbitration clause and class-action waiver like larger platforms use, that's worth deciding deliberately with a lawyer, since it meaningfully changes what rights a user gives up by agreeing to these Terms.

19. Export controls

You agree not to use the Service in violation of applicable U.S. export control or economic sanctions laws, and represent that you're not located in, or ordinarily resident in, a country or region subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions.

20. Miscellaneous

These Terms are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision isn't a waiver of it. We may update or assign these Terms in connection with a good-faith business transfer (for example, if the Service changes ownership).

21. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to [your contact email].