By using PhonoLeaf ("the app"), you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the app.
This document was drafted to plainly describe how PhonoLeaf actually works. Before relying on it for legal protection, especially once the app leaves testing and reaches the public, it's worth having an actual lawyer review it, particularly the liability and jurisdiction sections, which are written generically below.
PhonoLeaf ("we", "us") is developed and run from Québec, Canada. You can reach us at support@phonoleaf.com.
You must be at least 14 years old to use PhonoLeaf, and at least the minimum age that applies where you live, if that is higher. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you also need the permission of a parent or guardian.
PhonoLeaf connects to a folder in your own Google Drive, reads the epub files it finds there, and reads them aloud with a voice that runs on your device. Your book files are never uploaded to us. PhonoLeaf also keeps an optional backup of a small record of your reading (such as titles, authors, reading positions and listening time) on our server, so a new phone can pick up where the old one left off. It is off until you turn it on in Settings (turning on Friends turns it on too). Turning it off, or using Delete my data, erases that record from our server. The backup is a convenience, not a storage service we guarantee, and the record could be lost. Your book files are never part of it. The Privacy Policy explains exactly what it holds.
We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use PhonoLeaf on devices you own or control, for your own use, while you follow these terms. PhonoLeaf, its name, logo, design and code belong to us or our licensors. Apart from the open-source parts described below, you may not copy, modify, resell or redistribute the app, or remove its notices. If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without owing you anything.
Please don't use the app to disrupt, reverse engineer for malicious purposes, or gain unauthorized access to any service it connects to (including Google's APIs, Open Library and our own server); to try to reach another person's data; or to create accounts or invitations to obtain trials, rewards or gift codes you are not entitled to. We may suspend an account's access to our server features, such as backup and Friends, if it is used against these rules, without ever removing access you paid for.
Every voice except the Québec French voice is the Supertonic 3 model by Supertone Inc., provided under the Open RAIL-M licence. If you use any of these voices, you agree not to use it for any purpose that licence forbids in its Attachment A, including: anything that breaks the law; harming or exploiting minors; generating or spreading false information to harm others; generating personal information that could be used to harm someone; publishing what it generates without clearly saying that it is machine generated; impersonating, or attempting to impersonate, another person without their consent; defaming, disparaging or harassing others; fully automated decisions that harm someone's legal rights; discriminating against people or groups; exploiting the vulnerabilities of a group of people; medical advice or interpretation of medical results; and uses in justice, law enforcement, immigration or asylum processes such as predicting that someone will commit a crime. The full list is in the licence. Reading your books aloud for yourself is, of course, exactly what these voices are for.
Friends is optional and off until you turn it on.
The Privacy Policy explains what information PhonoLeaf handles, why, and the rights you have over it. Please read it together with these terms.
PhonoLeaf is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non infringement. We don't guarantee the app will be uninterrupted, error free, or compatible with every device or every book file.
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, arising from your use of the app. PhonoLeaf is an independently developed reading tool, not a service with guaranteed uptime or support.
These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Québec and the federal laws of Canada applicable there, without regard to conflict of laws rules. Wherever you live, if you use PhonoLeaf as a consumer, you keep every protection that the consumer laws of your place of residence give you and that a contract cannot take away, including Québec's Consumer Protection Act for residents of Québec. Where one of these terms conflicts with those protections, the protections prevail. If any part of these terms cannot be enforced where you live, the rest still applies.
PhonoLeaf is free to use with your phone's own voices. Its natural voices are offered as a paid subscription after a free trial. Current plans, shown here in US dollars before any applicable taxes. The store shows your price in your own currency before you pay:
Prices are shown before you are asked to pay, and may change over time (see "Changes to prices").
The first time you sign in, you get 7 days of full access, free. No payment details are asked for, and nothing is charged when the trial ends. After the trial, PhonoLeaf keeps reading aloud with your phone's own voices, which work offline; the natural voices need a plan. Everything else, including exporting or deleting your data, keeps working. One trial per person.
Monthly and annual subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period at the then current price, and your payment method is charged, until you cancel. By subscribing you authorize these recurring charges. We will tell you the price and billing frequency before you subscribe.
You can cancel at any time. Cancellation stops future renewals; your access continues until the end of the period you have already paid for. PhonoLeaf is sold only through the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, so you cancel from the subscription settings of the store you subscribed through. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription.
Purchases are made through the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, and refunds are handled by that store under its own policies, please request them there. Cancelling stops future charges. Nothing in these terms limits a refund the law entitles you to. For any problem with a purchase, you can also write to support@phonoleaf.com.
A Founding Member Lifetime purchase is a one time payment that grants access for the lifetime of the PhonoLeaf service (that is, for as long as PhonoLeaf continues to be offered) and not for the natural life of the purchaser. It is tied to your Google account, is not transferable, and is offered in limited quantity. If PhonoLeaf is permanently discontinued (see "Availability and discontinuation"), Lifetime access ends at that time; refunds in that event are addressed in that section.
Inviting friends is a promotional offer. It is not part of what a subscription includes, and it may not always be available. While it runs: when someone uses your invite code before they have ever paid for PhonoLeaf, their free trial lasts 30 days instead of 7. When their first payment goes through, you receive one free month, added a few days after that payment so that store refunds can settle.
Founding Members can create up to five gift codes in any 12-month period. Each code gives 30 days of access to the account that redeems it.
We may change subscription prices. For existing subscribers, we will give at least 30 days notice before a price change takes effect at your next renewal, and you may cancel before then if you do not agree. A price change does not affect a Lifetime purchase already made.
Prices are exclusive of taxes unless stated otherwise; in some countries, the price the store shows already includes them. You are responsible for any applicable sales tax, VAT, GST/HST or similar, which may be added at checkout or collected by the app store.
We may modify, suspend, or discontinue PhonoLeaf (in whole or in part) with reasonable notice where practicable. If we permanently discontinue the service: (a) for monthly/annual subscribers, we will not charge further renewals and will, where required or reasonable, refund the unused portion of a prepaid term; and (b) for Founding Member Lifetime purchasers within the prior 12 months, we will provide a refund (full or prorated at our reasonable discretion). Our total liability for the service is limited to the amounts you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, except where such a limit is not permitted by law.
If you buy a subscription or Lifetime access through the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, that store's terms and billing, cancellation, and refund policies also apply and may govern the transaction.
The app depends on services it doesn't control, principally Google Drive and Google sign-in, Open Library for book metadata, Google Play and the Apple App Store for purchases, and Cloudflare, which runs our server. Their availability, terms, and privacy practices are their own; see Google's Terms of Service for the Google related portion of this.
These terms are between you and us, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for PhonoLeaf or its content, and has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for it. If PhonoLeaf fails to meet an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any; to the extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation for PhonoLeaf. Apple is not responsible for handling claims about PhonoLeaf, including product liability claims, claims that it fails to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, consumer protection or privacy claims, and claims that PhonoLeaf or your use of it infringes someone else's intellectual property; we, not Apple, are responsible for investigating, defending, settling and discharging those claims, as these terms describe. You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated by it as a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you. You must also follow the App Store's terms of use, including its usage rules.
Some parts of PhonoLeaf, including its speech engine and its voices, are provided under their own open licences, listed on the Licences page in the app. Those licences govern those parts, and nothing in these terms restricts the rights they give you.
The app is under active development and may change, and features may be added, altered, or removed. If we change these terms in a way that affects your rights or what you pay, we will tell you in the app at least 30 days before the change takes effect, with the new text and what changed. If you do not agree, you can cancel before then at no cost. Other changes, such as clarifications, are posted here with a new effective date.
You may stop using the app and revoke its access to your Google account at any time (Settings → Sign out, or directly via your Google Account permissions). Settings → Delete my data also erases what our server holds about you, except the record of what you paid for. Leaving does not cancel a store subscription: cancel it in the store. We may end the service only as described in "Availability and discontinuation".
We may transfer these terms, and our rights and obligations under them, to a company that takes over running PhonoLeaf, such as a company we form for that purpose. Your rights, including anything you paid for, carry over unchanged. You may not transfer your rights under these terms to someone else.
These terms are available in French and English, and both versions have the same effect.
Questions about these terms: support@phonoleaf.com