These Terms of Use are an early-stage agreement for Roots. Please read them carefully before using the Service.

1. Welcome to Roots

Roots is an audio-first, location-based storytelling application (the “App”). Roots lets people record short voice stories that are pinned to physical places. When a listener moves near a pinned location, the associated recording can play automatically, so that stories are experienced in the real-world places they belong to.

In these Terms:

• a “root” means a single audio recording pinned to a specific geographic location;
• a “route” means a curated, ordered collection of roots;
• a “storyteller” means a user who records and publishes roots or routes;
• a “listener” means a user who plays roots or routes;
• “Content” means any audio recording, text, title, description, image, location data, profile information, or other material submitted to, or made available through, the App;
• the “Service” means the App, any related website, and all features offered through them;
• “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to the operator of Roots (currently an individual developer, contactable at roots@padawanconsulting.com), and “you” refers to the user of the Service.

These Terms of Use, together with our privacy provisions in Section 12 and our separate Privacy Policy, form a binding agreement between you and us regarding your use of the Service. By accessing or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.

2. Status of the Service

Roots is currently in an early, developmental, and non-commercial stage. The Service is provided free of charge and on an experimental basis. Features may be incomplete, may change without notice, and may not work as intended. We may add, remove, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time without liability to you.

3. Acceptance and changes to these Terms

By using the Service you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms. We may amend these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you, for example through a notice in the App or on any related website. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree to a change, you must stop using the Service.

4. Eligibility and age

You must be old enough under the laws of your country to enter into a binding agreement in order to use the Service. In South Africa this generally means you must be 18 years or older, or you must have the assistance or consent of your parent or legal guardian. If you use the App while travelling in a vehicle, you must comply with all age and licensing requirements applicable to that activity in your jurisdiction. If we reasonably believe an account belongs to a person who does not meet these requirements, we may suspend or delete it.

5. Your account

You may be able to use some features of the Service without registering, and other features may require you to create an account. You are responsible for keeping your login details secure and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to provide accurate information and to keep it up to date. You must not share your account with anyone else or use another person’s account without permission.

6. Licence to use the Service

Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable, and limited licence to access and use the Service for your own personal, non-commercial purposes. This licence does not transfer any ownership rights to you. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

7. Safety and responsible use while driving

This section is important. Please read it carefully.

Roots is designed to play audio in real-world locations, including while you are travelling by vehicle. You are solely responsible for operating any vehicle safely and lawfully at all times.

• Never interact with the screen, record a root, browse routes, or otherwise operate the App by hand while driving.
• Set up your listening or recording before you begin driving, or ask a passenger to operate the App, or stop safely and lawfully first.
• Always obey all road rules, traffic signals, speed limits, and the instructions of any traffic officer. Real-world road conditions always take priority over anything the App presents.
• Do not allow the App to distract you from the road, other vehicles, cyclists, or pedestrians.

You acknowledge that using an audio and location application while in motion carries inherent risks. You assume full and sole responsibility for your conduct and its consequences. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any accident, injury, loss, or damage arising from your use of the Service while driving, walking, or otherwise moving through the world.

8. Your Content and recordings

You keep ownership. You retain any rights you already hold in the Content you submit. Recording and publishing a root does not transfer your ownership to us.

Licence you give to us. So that the Service can work as designed, you grant us and other users a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt, publicly perform, publicly display, distribute, and otherwise use the Content you choose to make available, for the purpose of operating, promoting, and improving the Service. For example, this licence allows a root you publish to be stored on our systems and played to listeners near its pinned location, and allows a route you build to be shown and followed by others. This licence continues for as long as your Content remains on the Service and for a reasonable period afterwards to allow for removal from backups.

Your promises about your Content. When you submit Content, you represent and warrant that:

• you own it or have all necessary rights and permissions to submit it and to grant the licence above;
• it does not infringe anyone else’s intellectual property, privacy, or other rights;
• you have the consent of any identifiable person whose voice, name, image, or personal information appears in it;
• it is accurate to the best of your knowledge and not misleading; and
• it complies with these Terms and all applicable laws.

Voice recordings are public once shared. If you publish a root, other users may be able to hear it, and depending on the feature, may be able to save or replay it. Do not record or share anything you are not comfortable being made public. Once Content has been shared, we may not be able to fully control how others use it.

9. Prohibited content and conduct

You must not submit, publish, link to, or otherwise make available any Content, and you must not use the Service, in a way that:

• is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, threatening, hateful, or discriminatory on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or similar grounds;
• is violent, sexually explicit, or otherwise harmful, or that exploits, endangers, or is directed at minors;
• discloses another person’s private or personal information without their consent, or pins Content to a private residence or sensitive location in a way that could endanger or harass someone;
• infringes any intellectual property or other rights of any person;
• is false, deceptive, or fraudulent, or impersonates any person or entity;
• encourages or facilitates dangerous, criminal, or illegal activity;
• is spam, advertising, or unsolicited commercial or promotional material;
• introduces malware, or attempts to hack, disrupt, overload, reverse engineer, or gain unauthorised access to the Service or its systems; or
• uses automated means to scrape, copy, or harvest Content or data, or builds a competing database from the Service.

We are not obliged to publish or keep any Content, and we may review, refuse, remove, or restrict access to Content, and suspend or terminate accounts, where we reasonably believe these Terms or the law have been breached. We do not routinely monitor Content and generally act only when an issue is brought to our attention.

10. Reporting content

If you believe Content on the Service is unlawful, infringes your rights, or breaches these Terms, please contact us at roots@padawanconsulting.com with enough detail to let us find and assess the Content. We will make reasonable efforts to review reports and take appropriate action. If your own Content is removed and you believe this was a mistake, you may contact us to ask us to reconsider.

11. Our intellectual property

The Service itself, including the Roots name, logo, design, look and feel, software, and all material we create, is owned by us or our licensors and is protected by copyright and other laws. Except for the limited licence in Section 6, nothing in these Terms gives you any right to use our intellectual property. You must not remove, alter, or obscure any of our branding or legal notices.

12. Privacy and your personal information

We take your privacy seriously and aim to process personal information lawfully. This section is a summary; our full Privacy Policy governs in the event of any inconsistency.

What we collect. Depending on how you use the Service, we may collect the account details you provide (such as name or email), the Content you create, and location data. Because Roots is location-based, we collect the geographic coordinates you pin roots to, and, when you use location features, your device’s location while you use the App. In the current build, location is used in the foreground while the App is in use. Any future background or drive-by location feature will be introduced with clear notice and appropriate consent controls.

Why we use it. We use your information to operate and improve the Service, to pin and play roots at the right places, to enable following and social features, to respond to your requests, and to comply with the law.

Your rights. Where South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) applies, you have rights to access, correct, and request deletion of your personal information, to object to certain processing, and to lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator. Similar rights may apply under the GDPR, the UK GDPR, or other laws depending on where you are. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at roots@padawanconsulting.com.

Third-party processors. We use third-party providers to run the Service, including cloud hosting and database services and map and location services. These providers process data on our behalf and may store it on servers outside your country. We rely on them to apply appropriate safeguards, but their own terms and privacy policies also apply to their services.

Consent. By using the Service, and in particular by enabling location features, you consent to the collection and use of your information as described here. You may withdraw consent by disabling the relevant device permissions or by ceasing to use the Service, though some features may then not work.

13. Third-party services and links

The Service may rely on or link to third-party services, websites, or content that we do not control. We are not responsible for the availability, accuracy, content, or practices of any third party. Your use of a third-party service is at your own risk and subject to that third party’s own terms.

14. Disclaimers

The Service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, whether express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, reliability, security, and availability.

In particular, we do not warrant that:

• the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free;
• location data, pins, maps, or playback will be accurate or complete;
• Content submitted by users is accurate, lawful, or safe; or
• the Service will meet your requirements.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any right or protection you have under mandatory consumer protection law, including the South African Consumer Protection Act, that cannot lawfully be excluded.

15. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, and subject to Section 14, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, goodwill, or opportunity, arising out of or in connection with your use of, or inability to use, the Service, whether based in contract, delict, or any other legal theory, and whether or not we were advised of the possibility of such damages.

Because the Service is provided free of charge and on an experimental basis, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims relating to the Service is limited, to the maximum extent permitted by law, to the greater of the amount you paid us to use the Service (which is currently zero) or ZAR 1,000.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability, so some of the above may not apply to you. In that case, our liability is limited to the smallest extent permitted by law.

16. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from and against any claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or connected with your Content, your use of the Service, or your breach of these Terms or of any law or third-party right.

17. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. You may request deletion of your account and associated personal information by contacting us at roots@padawanconsulting.com, and we will use reasonable efforts to action this, subject to any legal retention obligations and to removal from backups over a reasonable period.

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to the Service, or remove your Content, at any time and at our discretion, including where we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms or the law, or where doing so is necessary to protect the Service, its users, or the public. Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including those on Content licences already granted, intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity, and governing law, will continue to apply.

18. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. You agree that the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service, subject to any mandatory rights you may have to bring proceedings in the courts of your own country of residence under applicable consumer law.

19. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service.
• Severability. If any provision is found to be unenforceable, the rest of the Terms remain in effect.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a provision, that is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
• Assignment. You may not assign your rights under these Terms without our consent. We may assign ours, for example if the project becomes a formal business or is transferred.
• No partnership. Nothing in these Terms creates any partnership, agency, employment, or joint venture between you and us.

20. Contact

This is a pre-launch template and not a substitute for professional legal advice. Obtain a formal legal review before making Roots publicly available or handling personal data at scale.