Socioverse Terms of Service

Effective Date: November 1, 2024 • Platform: Socioverse Network

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using any aspect of the Socioverse website, real-time chatrooms, voice lounges, or APIs (collectively, the "Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms") and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must immediately discontinue using the Service.

2. Eligibility & Age Requirements

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service (or at least 16 years old in member states of the European Union, in accordance with the GDPR). By using Socioverse, you represent and warrant that you meet this minimum age requirement and possess the legal capacity to form a binding contract.

3. User Accounts & Security

When registering an account, you agree to choose a handle that does not infringe upon trademarks or impersonate other persons. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activities that occur under your handle.

4. User-Generated Content & Intellectual Property

You retain ownership of any text, messages, or media you post on Socioverse. However, by transmitting messages into public chatrooms, you grant Socioverse a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to display, distribute, and format that content solely to deliver the real-time communication service.

5. Comprehensive Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

You agree to access and use the Service strictly for lawful, non-injurious conversational purposes. You expressly agree not to engage in or facilitate any of the following prohibited behaviors:

• Infrastructure Interference: Attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any Socioverse network, server, reverse proxy, or WebSocket daemon, or breaching any authentication or security boundary.
• Automated Scripting & Scraping: Deploying automated scripts, headless browsers, scrapers, web spiders, or botnets to harvest conversational transcripts, extract member handles, or flood rooms with high-frequency messages exceeding human typing thresholds.
• Denial of Service Attacks: Flooding WebSocket connections with malformed binary payloads, initiating SYN floods, or intentionally degrading network latency for other participants.
• Malicious Code & Phishing: Transmitting viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs, keyloggers, or hyperlinking to deceptive credential harvesting or cryptocurrency fraud domains.
• Severe Safety Infractions: Uploading, distributing, or soliciting Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), non-consensual intimate imagery, terrorist propaganda, or credible threats of physical bodily harm.
• Doxxing & Deanonymization: Exposing, publishing, or soliciting another person's real-world legal name, residential address, telephone number, employment details, or private financial records without explicit consent.
• Commercial Exploitation & Spam: Unsolicited broadcasting of commercial advertising, affiliate referral schemes, multi-level marketing pitches, or unapproved commercial bots in public topic lounges.

6. User-Generated Content & Limited Operational License

You retain all copyright and proprietary rights in any original text messages, markdown formatting, digital artwork, or code snippets you transmit on Socioverse:

• Limited Operational License: By transmitting content into public chatrooms, you grant Socioverse a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, limited license to route, cache, display, serialize, and format that content solely to deliver real-time communication functionality to other connected participants in that room.
• No Sublicensing to AI Training Brokers: Socioverse explicitly covenants that it will not sublicense, sell, or commercialize your conversation transcripts to third-party artificial intelligence laboratories for foundation model training.
• Ephemeral Nature of Public Chat: You acknowledge that public chat messages are held temporarily in volatile memory buffers for conversational continuity and are not permanently archived or guaranteed to be retrievable after they age out of active server memory.

7. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) & Repeat Infringer Policy

Socioverse maintains a strict repeat infringer policy in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512). If you believe content hosted on Socioverse infringes your copyright:

8. Disclaimer of Warranties ("As-Is" & "With All Faults")

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED STRICTLY ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITH ALL FAULTS AND DEFECTS. SOCIOVERSE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. SOCIOVERSE MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, ACHIEVE ANY INTENDED RESULTS, OPERATE WITHOUT INTERRUPTION, MEET ANY PERFORMANCE OR RELIABILITY STANDARDS, OR BE COMPLETELY SECURE FROM CYBER ATTACKS.

9. Comprehensive Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL SOCIOVERSE NETWORK LLC, ITS AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA LOSS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF GOODWILL, COMPUTER FAILURE, OR PERSONAL EMOTIONAL DISTRESS) ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY.

IN ALL EVENTS, THE TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY OF SOCIOVERSE FOR ANY CLAIMS ARISING UNDER THESE TERMS SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS ($100.00 USD) OR THE TOTAL AMOUNT ACTUALLY PAID BY YOU TO SOCIOVERSE DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM.

10. Indemnification Obligations

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Socioverse Network LLC, its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any third-party claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising out of or in any way connected with: (a) your breach of these Terms or our Community Guidelines; (b) any content you submit or transmit through the Service; or (c) your violation of any third-party right, including intellectual property or privacy rights.

11. Mandatory Binding Dispute Resolution & Arbitration

Please read this section carefully as it affects your legal rights:

• Mandatory Informal Negotiation: Prior to initiating arbitration or legal proceedings, both you and Socioverse agree to attempt to resolve any dispute informally for at least thirty (30) days by providing written notice to legal@socioverse.me.
• Binding Individual Arbitration: Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally shall be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules.
• Class Action Waiver: YOU AND SOCIOVERSE AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.
• Arbitration Opt-Out: You have the right to opt out of binding arbitration within thirty (30) days of your initial use of the Service by sending written notice to legal@socioverse.me with the subject “Arbitration Opt-Out”.

12. Governing Law, Jurisdiction & Severability

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to choice of law principles. To the extent court litigation is permitted, the parties consent to the exclusive personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts situated in Wilmington, Delaware. If any provision of these Terms is deemed unlawful or unenforceable, that provision shall be severable and shall not affect the validity of remaining provisions.

14. Virtual Badges, Digital Reputation & Cosmetic Perks

Socioverse may provide registered members with opportunities to earn virtual reputation badges, activity streaks, custom avatar frames, and cosmetic channel styling:

• Non-Monetary Nature of Badges: Virtual badges and flair hold zero cash value, cannot be redeemed for fiat currency or cryptocurrency, and do not constitute personal property. They represent a limited, revocable license granted by Socioverse to display cosmetic indicators within the chatroom interface.
• No Transferability: You may not sell, barter, trade, or transfer handles, badges, or privileges to any third party. Any attempted transaction will result in the immediate forfeiture of the involved accounts.
• Revocation for Misconduct: Socioverse reserves the right to remove badges, reset reputation levels, or revoke room hosting privileges if an account engages in abusive conduct or guideline violations.

15. International Sanctions & Export Control Compliance

The software, protocols, and technical infrastructure powering Socioverse are subject to United States and international export control laws:

• You represent and warrant that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any country subject to comprehensive United States economic embargoes (including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, or the Crimea/Donetsk/Luhansk regions of Ukraine).
• You warrant that you are not listed on any United States Government list of prohibited or restricted parties, including the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) or the Entity List administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).

16. Electronic Notices, Severability & Entire Agreement

By using the Service, you consent to receive legal notices, administrative disclosures, and policy announcements electronically. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Community Guidelines, constitute the entire legal agreement between you and Socioverse Network LLC, superseding all prior agreements or representations.

18. Fair Usage & Bandwidth Allocation

To ensure equitable network availability for all international participants, Socioverse enforces automated edge fair-usage quotas on concurrent socket connections, WebRTC audio bitrate consumption, and bulk message throughput. Accounts that systematically abuse bandwidth through multi-instance automated socket relays or synthetic stress-testing without prior administrative consent will experience automated traffic shaping or temporary rate-limiting until normal usage patterns resume.

19. Modifications to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms periodically. Notice of material updates will be posted via a site-wide broadcast banner at least fourteen (14) days prior to the effective date. Your continued access to the Service following such updates constitutes affirmative acceptance of the revised Terms.

You agree not to engage in any of the following activities:

• Interfering with or disrupting the integrity, latency, or performance of the Service, WebSocket endpoints, or servers.
• Using automated crawlers, scrapers, or bot scripts to harvest data or send unauthorized spam messages.
• Posting or transmitting unlawful, defamatory, obscene, or threatening content, or content violating third-party copyrights or privacy rights.
• Attempting to bypass access controls, circumvent IP blocks, or probe platform vulnerabilities.

6. DMCA Copyright Agent & Notice Procedure

Socioverse respects intellectual property rights and complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512). If you believe content hosted on Socioverse infringes upon your copyright, send a formal DMCA notice to our designated copyright agent:

DMCA Copyright Agent — Socioverse Network
Email: dmca@socioverse.me
Subject Line: Formal DMCA Infringement Notification

7. Disclaimer of Warranties & Limitation of Liability

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. SOCIOVERSE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL SOCIOVERSE BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE.

8. Governing Law & Jurisdiction

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict of law principles. Any legal dispute shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state or federal courts located in Delaware.