Terms of Service

Acceptance Of Terms

By accessing or using DuckNotes, you agree to these Terms of Service and any additional guidelines or policies that are incorporated by reference. If you do not accept these Terms, do not use the service.

Description Of The Service

DuckNotes is a browser game platform and community service independently developed and operated by an individual developer. We help users discover and play embedded third-party games, maintain profiles and libraries, join leaderboards, publish community content, interact with other users, and use related social, reporting, and account features available through the service.

Important Definitions

"DuckNotes" means the DuckNotes website and related services we operate. "Content" means text, images, media, code, data, and other materials available through the service. "User Content" means content that users submit, upload, publish, link, or otherwise make available through DuckNotes. "Third-Party Content" means games, ads, services, and materials supplied by parties other than DuckNotes.

Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use DuckNotes. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may use the service only with the permission and supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to these Terms on your behalf where required by law.

Accounts And Access

You may create an account using supported sign-in methods, including email, Google, or Apple where available. You are responsible for safeguarding your account credentials, keeping account information reasonably accurate, and all activity that occurs under your account. You must promptly notify us if you believe your account has been compromised or used without authorization.

Limited License To Use The Service

Subject to these Terms, DuckNotes grants you a limited, non-exclusive, revocable, non-transferable license to access and use the service for your personal, non-commercial use, unless we expressly agree otherwise in writing. This license does not give you ownership of the service, any game, any platform feature, or any intellectual property made available through DuckNotes.

Rules Of Conduct

You may not misuse DuckNotes, other users, or third-party content made available through DuckNotes. In particular, you may not:

• Use bots, scrapers, crawlers, automation, or other technical means to access, monitor, extract, or interact with the service except where we clearly permit it.
• Interfere with the service, bypass rate limits, probe for vulnerabilities, attempt unauthorized access, or disrupt the experience of other users, vendors, or partners.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or try to extract source code from DuckNotes, embedded games, APIs, anti-abuse systems, or related security controls, except where the law expressly allows it.
• Manipulate ads, engagement metrics, rewards, ratings, leaderboards, or gameplay tracking through deceptive, artificial, scripted, or automated behavior.
• Impersonate another person, create fraudulent accounts, misrepresent your identity or affiliation, or assist someone else in doing so.
• Post, upload, link, or distribute content that is illegal, infringing, sexually exploitative, hateful, violent, harassing, defamatory, abusive, invasive of privacy, or otherwise prohibited by law or our policies.
• Upload malware, harmful code, spam, or evasion tools, or create replacement accounts to bypass a suspension, restriction, moderation action, or other enforcement measure.
• Use DuckNotes in a way that violates applicable law, third-party rights, advertising rules, sanctions restrictions, export controls, or the policies that apply to embedded games and external services.

Third-Party Games And Content

DuckNotes includes games, media, links, advertising, analytics, sign-in systems, and services supplied by third parties. Those third parties own and control their content and may apply their own terms, privacy notices, technical restrictions, age ratings, payment rules, or advertising practices. We are not responsible for third-party products or services that we do not operate, control, or maintain.

Availability, Changes, And Experiments

We may add, remove, pause, test, restrict, or modify any part of DuckNotes at any time, including games, rankings, community features, technical integrations, and moderation systems. We do not guarantee that any feature, item of content, or third-party game will remain available, error-free, or unchanged for any specific period.

User-Generated Content

You keep ownership of the User Content you create, subject to any rights you grant to third parties. By posting, uploading, submitting, or otherwise making User Content available through DuckNotes, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, adapt, display, distribute, communicate, index, review, moderate, and otherwise use that content as reasonably necessary to operate, secure, improve, promote, and enforce the service and our policies.

Moderation And Enforcement

DuckNotes may use automated systems and human reviewers to screen, flag, delay publication of, restrict, remove, reduce visibility of, or otherwise act on content or accounts. We may take these actions when we believe there is spam, fraud, illegal content, safety risk, policy violation, evasion, reputational risk, or platform abuse. We are not required to publish, continue to host, or restore any content or account access.

Reports, Complaints, And Legal Notices

Users may report content, behavior, or accounts that they believe violate the law or our policies. We may investigate reports, request additional information, cooperate with law enforcement or rights holders where legally required, and preserve relevant records when necessary. Copyright and similar legal complaints may also be handled under our separate DMCA or intellectual property procedures where provided.

Intellectual Property

DuckNotes, our branding, site design, software, text, and original platform elements are protected by intellectual property laws. Except for the limited license expressly granted under these Terms, we reserve all rights not expressly granted to you. Embedded games, logos, ads, media, and other Third-Party Content remain the property of their respective owners.

Disclaimers

DuckNotes is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis to the maximum extent permitted by law. This means, among other things, that:

• We do not promise uninterrupted availability, error-free operation, continued availability of any game or feature, or compatibility with every browser, device, network, or jurisdiction.
• Third-party games, ads, links, and external services are outside our direct control and may change, fail, be restricted, or disappear without notice.
• Community content reflects the views and actions of the users who post it, not DuckNotes, and we do not guarantee that all harmful, inaccurate, or unlawful content will be caught before publication or interaction.
• Your use of embedded games, third-party tools, browsers, devices, networks, and external services is at your own risk.

Limitation Of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, DuckNotes and its operators, employees, contractors, licensors, and partners are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or business opportunity arising out of or related to the service. If the law does not allow some of these limits, our liability is limited to the minimum amount the law permits. For any claim relating to the service, our total aggregate liability will not exceed the greater of USD 100 or the amount you paid us for the service in the 12 months before the claim.

Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless DuckNotes and its operators, employees, contractors, and partners from claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, losses, and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of or related to your User Content, your misuse of the service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of the rights of another person or entity.

Suspension And Termination

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate access to DuckNotes, remove content, disable features, or close accounts if we reasonably believe you violated these Terms, created legal or safety risk, abused the platform, attempted to evade enforcement, or exposed us or others to liability. You may stop using the service at any time and may request account deletion through the tools we provide. Some provisions of these Terms survive termination by their nature, including provisions related to intellectual property, disclaimers, liability limits, disputes, and indemnity.

Governing Law And Disputes

Except where mandatory law provides otherwise, these Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to DuckNotes will be governed by the laws that apply in the jurisdiction where the individual developer operating DuckNotes is established at the time the dispute arises, excluding conflict-of-law rules. Mandatory consumer protections in your home jurisdiction remain unaffected. Before filing a formal claim, you and DuckNotes agree to try to resolve the dispute informally by contacting us. If a dispute cannot be resolved informally, it may be brought before the courts that have jurisdiction under applicable law, unless mandatory law requires a different forum or procedure.

Changes To These Terms

We may update these Terms when the service, applicable law, our vendors, or our business practices change. If the update is material, we will post a clear notice before it takes effect. Your continued use of DuckNotes after the effective date means you accept the revised Terms to the extent permitted by law.

Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, legal requests, or dispute notices, contact us at contact@ducknotes.org.