Terms of Service

1. Agreeing to these terms

Synth.pub ("Synth," "we," "us") is a platform where people write fiction and non-fiction together with AI. Synth is operated by Ali Taha (known on the site as Oliver Flask), an individual based in Michigan, USA.

These Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy apply when you use Synth. That includes reading, writing, trying Synth without an account, or holding a free or paid account. When you create an account or keep using Synth after being shown these terms, you agree to them. If you don't agree, please don't use Synth.

2. Who can use Synth

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account or use Synth's writing tools. If you are under 18, you need a parent or legal guardian's permission, and they agree to these terms on your behalf. Stories rated Mature are meant for adults.

If we learn that someone under 13 has an account, we will close it and delete its personal information.

3. Accounts and trial drafts

Your account

Keep your login details private. You are responsible for what happens under your account. Give us a real email address; it's the only way we can reach you about your account or billing. If you think someone else has gotten into your account, tell us right away at [email protected].

One person may hold one free account. Making extra accounts to get more free AI allowance is not allowed (see section 6).

Writing without an account

You can start a draft without registering. That draft is tied to your browser, not to an account. Things to know:

• If you clear your cookies or switch browsers, you can lose the draft.
• Drafts with nothing written are deleted after about 12 hours.
• Drafts with writing are kept for 30 days.
• Trial drafts have a one-time AI allowance, and they can't be published.

If you create an account from a trial draft, everything you wrote comes with you.

4. Your writing

You own it

You keep all the rights you have in what you post on Synth. That includes stories, chapters, passages, notes, Story Bible entries, forum posts, comments, and your profile. We don't claim ownership of any of it.

The permission you give us

To run Synth, we need permission to do certain things with your content. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, process, format, and display your content. The license covers only what it takes to operate, secure, and improve Synth. It includes the following:

• Showing your published work to readers.
• Sending the relevant parts of your work to an AI provider when you or your Scribe ask the AI to work with it (see section 5).
• Running grading and style analysis on it.
• Keeping backups.
• The moves you write may be used to animate other players' films.

This license ends when you delete the content or your account. There are three exceptions:

• Copies in backups may take up to 90 days to cycle out.
• Content you've shared into someone else's space, like a forum reply, can remain there.
• We may keep what the law requires us to keep.

What we won't do

We don't sell your writing. We don't use it to train AI models. We won't publish anything you haven't chosen to publish.

Your responsibility

You confirm that you have the right to post what you post. Content you publish must not infringe anyone else's rights, and it must follow section 6.

5. Writing with AI

Transparency is the point

Synth labels and logs AI contributions, so readers can see which words came from you and which came from your AI partner. You agree not to hide, strip, or get around those labels. That applies on Synth, and it applies when you republish Synth-assisted work somewhere else and present it as entirely human-written.

AI output

AI writing can be wrong, strange, repetitive, or similar to existing text. You're responsible for what you choose to keep and publish. Any rights we might hold in AI output generated for you, we give to you.

Be aware that copyright law on AI-generated material is unsettled. In the United States, text an AI produced without meaningful human creative input may not be protected by copyright at all. The parts you write, choose, arrange, and edit are yours. We can't promise how any court or copyright office will treat the rest.

Where your text goes

When you use Synth's built-in AI, the text needed for that request is sent to our AI provider for processing. That text can include your passage, your chat, and relevant story notes. Our Privacy Policy names the provider and explains this.

Grading

The Prose Deity and similar tools give automated, AI-generated opinions about writing. They are not professional editorial judgments, and they don't guarantee anything about your work.

6. What's not allowed

Don't use Synth to do any of the following:

• Post sexual content involving minors, in any form, fictional or not. This rule has no exceptions. We report it to the authorities.
• Post content that is illegal where you are or in the United States.
• Harass, threaten, or bully anyone. Post anyone's private information without consent. Encourage violence against real people or groups.
• Post writing that isn't yours or that you don't have permission to use. That includes plagiarism and uploading copyrighted books or articles.
• Post fan fiction based on works still under copyright. That means stories using the characters, settings, or worlds of books, films, TV, games, anime, comics, or other works someone else owns, unless you own those rights or have written permission. Retellings of public-domain works are welcome, and so are original stories inspired by a genre or trope.
• Pass off AI-written text as human-written, or defeat Synth's AI labeling.
• Publish mature content without rating it Mature.
• Spam, advertise without permission, or impersonate anyone, including Synth staff.
• Create multiple accounts or trial drafts to collect extra free AI allowance. Share, resell, or automate access to Synth's AI.
• Scrape, crawl, or bulk-download Synth or other people's work, except through features we provide for that.
• Probe, attack, or overload Synth's systems. Get around rate limits or security. Access accounts or data that aren't yours.
• Use Synth's AI to produce content our AI provider forbids, or content meant to cause real-world harm.

We may remove content, limit features, or suspend accounts that break these rules. We decide what counts as a violation. We'll try to be fair and explain when we can.

7. Tokens, Ink, and grades

Synth measures AI usage in tokens. Every account earns a weekly token allowance based on its plan:

• On the 1st of each month (UTC), you receive one week's allowance.
• Each Monday after that adds another week's allowance.
• Unused allowance rolls over from week to week until the end of the calendar month.
• On the 1st of the next month, the balance resets to a single week's allowance.

The allowance is a limit on AI usage, not a balance you own. It has no cash value and can't be transferred.

Synth also has in-site items like Ink, XP, grades, and badges. These items:

• Are part of the service, not property.
• Have no cash value.
• Can't be sold or transferred.
• May be adjusted, rebalanced, or retired as Synth develops.

If a technical failure costs you Ink or tokens, tell us and we'll make it right where we reasonably can.

8. Your own AI keys and endpoints

You can connect your own AI provider key or your own webhook endpoint. If you do:

• Your requests go to the provider or endpoint you chose, under their terms and pricing, and you pay their charges.
• We store API keys encrypted and use them only to make the requests you ask for.
• Content we send to your endpoint is under your control from then on. You are responsible for how your endpoint handles it.

Synth isn't responsible for charges, outages, or behavior of third-party providers or of endpoints you run.

9. Paid plans and billing

Plans and prices

Paid plans (currently Pro and Max) give you a larger weekly AI allowance and cosmetic extras: a profile badge and story glow effects. Prices are shown on the site before you buy. You can pay for 1, 3, 6, or 12 months at a time, and longer terms cost less per month. Prices are in US dollars and don't include any sales tax that may apply.

Payment

Payments are processed by Stripe. Synth never sees or stores your full card number. By subscribing, you authorize Stripe to charge your payment method for the plan you chose.

Automatic renewal

Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each term, for the same length of time, at the price in effect for you then, until you cancel. For example, a 6-month plan renews for another 6 months. Before an annual plan renews, we'll email you a reminder.

Cancelling

You can cancel anytime from your account's billing page, which is hosted by Stripe, or by emailing us. When you cancel, the plan stops renewing. You keep your paid allowance until the end of the period you already paid for, and then your account returns to Free. Your writing is never affected by your plan.

Refunds

If you ask within 7 days of any charge, whether it's a new subscription or a renewal, we'll refund that charge in full. After 7 days, charges aren't refundable, including partial refunds for unused time. You still keep access until the period ends. We may also give refunds in other cases at our discretion, and we'll always refund a charge made by our mistake. To ask for a refund, use our contact form or email [email protected], using your account's email address.

Beta price lock

If you subscribe during the open beta, we won't raise your price for as long as your subscription stays active without a gap. If you cancel and come back later, current prices apply.

Founding Writers

Accounts marked as Founding Writers receive the Pro plan at no charge for as long as the account remains active and in good standing. If a Founding Writer's paid Max subscription ends, the account returns to Pro. This benefit belongs to the account and can't be transferred. We may remove it only for a serious or repeated violation of these terms.

Price changes

Aside from the beta price lock, we may change prices. We'll give you at least 30 days' notice before a new price applies to your renewal, so you have time to cancel.

Failed payments and chargebacks

If a renewal payment fails, Stripe will retry it for a short time. If it keeps failing, your account returns to Free. If you think a charge is wrong, please contact us first. We can usually fix it faster than a bank dispute can.

10. Leaving, suspension, termination

You can stop using Synth anytime. To delete your account and its personal data, contact us using your account's email address. We'll confirm, then complete the deletion within 30 days. Published work is removed along with the account.

We may suspend or close accounts that seriously or repeatedly break these terms, that put other users or Synth at risk, or when the law requires it. When possible we'll warn you first and give you a chance to download your work. If we close a paid account for reasons other than a violation, we'll refund the unused part of your current term.

If Synth ever shuts down, we'll give at least 30 days' notice, help you export your writing, and refund unused paid time.

11. Copyright complaints

We respect copyright and respond to proper notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you believe content on Synth infringes your copyright, send a notice through our contact form (choose "Copyright notice") or by email to [email protected] with the subject "DMCA Notice." Include the following:

1. Your name, address, phone number, and email.
2. A description of the copyrighted work.
3. The link to the material on Synth you believe infringes it.
4. A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use isn't authorized by the owner, its agent, or the law.
5. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner.
6. Your physical or electronic signature.

If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you can send a counter-notice to the same address. We close the accounts of repeat infringers.

12. Beta service and changes

Synth is in open beta and actively being built. Features may change, move, or be removed, and things may break. We work to keep your writing safe and backed up, but we can't guarantee Synth will always be available or error-free. Please keep your own copies of work that matters to you.

13. Disclaimers and liability

SYNTH IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. THIS INCLUDES WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, SYNTH AND ITS OPERATOR ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO SYNTH IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) WHAT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM, OR (B) $50.

Some places don't allow certain of these limits. Where that's the case, they apply only as far as the law permits.

You agree to cover reasonable losses and legal costs we face because of content you posted or your violation of these terms.

14. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Michigan and of the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. If you have a problem with Synth, please contact us first. Most things can be sorted out that way. If a dispute can't be resolved informally, it will be handled in the state or federal courts located in or serving Midland County, Michigan. Either of us may also bring a claim in small-claims court if it qualifies.

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a right right away, we haven't given it up. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and Synth about the service.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as Synth grows. For meaningful changes, we'll show a notice on the site, which you'll need to acknowledge. For changes that affect paid subscribers, we'll also send an email. The date at the top shows the latest version. Continuing to use Synth after a change takes effect means you accept the new terms.

16. Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected].