Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of terms

By accessing or using Codex Sinica (the "Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree with any part of these terms, you must not use the Service.

2. Nature of the Service

Codex Sinica provides free, browser-based utilities intended as research aids for the study of ancient Chinese writing. The tools, datasets and interpretations offered here are provided for informational and educational purposes only. They do not constitute authoritative scholarship, professional advice or certified translation.

3. No user accounts

The Service does not require or offer user accounts, registration or login. No personal credentials are collected or stored. All tools are accessible without authentication.

4. User content

You retain all rights to text, images or other content you input into the Service's tools. Because all processing occurs locally in your browser, your input is never transmitted to or stored on our servers. You grant us no licence to your input content.

5. Acceptable use

You agree to use the Service only for lawful purposes. You may not:

• Attempt to disrupt, overload or reverse-engineer the Service;
• Use automated systems in a way that imposes an unreasonable load;
• Redistribute Service datasets in violation of their upstream licences;
• Represent tool output as authoritative scholarly work without independent verification;
• Use the Service for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms.

6. Intellectual property

Interface design, layout and original code are © the Codex Sinica maintainers. Bundled reference datasets are drawn from public-domain and openly licensed academic sources; each dataset retains its original licence.

7. Disclaimer of warranty

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, error-free, or that scholarly interpretations returned by any tool will be correct.

8. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Codex Sinica maintainers shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages arising from your use of, or inability to use, the Service.

9. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Codex Sinica maintainers from any claims, damages, losses or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your violation of these Terms or your use of the Service in a manner not permitted herein.

10. Third-party resources

The Service may link to third-party websites (for example, OpenStreetMap for geographical lookups). We are not responsible for the content, policies or availability of those sites.

11. Termination

We reserve the right to restrict or terminate access to the Service, without prior notice, for conduct that we reasonably believe violates these Terms or is harmful to other users, the Service or third parties. Upon termination, the provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive will remain in effect.

12. Force majeure

We shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performing our obligations under these Terms where such failure or delay results from circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, riots, embargoes, acts of civil or military authorities, fire, floods, accidents, strikes or shortages of transportation, facilities, fuel, energy, labour or materials.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will be revised accordingly. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. We encourage you to review these Terms periodically.

14. Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by generally applicable principles of international consumer law. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall first be resolved through good-faith negotiation via the contact channels listed on our Contact page. If negotiation fails, the dispute shall be submitted to the competent courts of the jurisdiction in which the Codex Sinica maintainers are based.

15. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent through the Contact page.