Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of akaeon.com, the Akaeon Registry API, the standalone verifier, and any related services we provide (collectively, the “Service”). By accessing or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. The service

Akaeon operates a cryptographic opt-out registry for AI training. Publishers submit opt-outs and prove domain control. Akaeon signs the canonical payload and anchors a Merkle root to the public Arweave network. Labs and other third parties can query the registry and independently verify records.

The Service is provided by Akaeon. The technical specification, integration runbook, and verifier are published at /docs and form part of these Terms by reference for the purposes of describing what the Service does.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction, and have the authority to enter into these Terms on behalf of yourself or the entity you represent. If you use the Service on behalf of an entity, you confirm that you have authority to bind that entity, and “you” in these Terms refers to that entity.

For publisher and lab accounts, you are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide, the security of your credentials, and all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us immediately at hunter@akaeon.com if you suspect unauthorised access.

3. Publisher submissions

By submitting an opt-out to the registry, you represent and warrant that:

1. You control the domain referenced in the submission, and you can demonstrate that control via the DNS challenge specified in the docs.
2. The intent expressed in the submission is intent you actually hold.
3. You understand that the resulting record is public by design, anchored to a third-party-operated, append-only network (Arweave), and cannot be deleted by Akaeon or anyone else once anchored.
4. You do not include personal information or other sensitive material in the submission that you are not willing to make permanently public.

Submissions found to be fraudulent or made in bad faith may be rejected at submission time, flagged in the registry, or revoked in metadata. Anchored records remain on Arweave; revocation is expressed through the registry’s state, not by deletion of the underlying anchor.

4. Lab use

Labs may query the registry under the credentials we issue, subject to any rate limits or commercial terms we communicate in writing. Labs are expected to: (i) call the registry at training-data ingestion as described in the integration runbook; (ii) maintain an honest audit log of lookups; (iii) honor the opt-outs they receive in accordance with their own legal obligations.

Akaeon does not, and cannot, verify whether a lab actually honored an opt-out internally. The Service produces evidence; the use of that evidence is the lab’s responsibility.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Submit opt-outs for domains you do not control or intent you do not hold.
• Attempt to disrupt, overload, or interfere with the registry, the API, or related infrastructure.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source from any non-public component of the Service, except to the extent applicable law permits.
• Use the Service to harass, defame, or violate the rights of others, or to violate any applicable law.
• Circumvent or attempt to circumvent any rate limit, access control, or authentication mechanism.
• Submit malicious content, including content intended to compromise systems that consume the registry.

6. Pricing and fees

The registry is free for publishers in v1. Lab access pricing is set in conversation with the first paying labs and communicated in writing as part of onboarding. Any fees we agree on are payable in accordance with the invoicing terms specified at that time. We may change pricing prospectively on reasonable notice.

7. Intellectual property

Akaeon retains all right, title, and interest in and to the Service, the website, the documentation, and the registry software, including all related intellectual property rights. These Terms do not transfer any of those rights to you.

Public artefacts — the technical specification, the standalone verifier source, and the canonical record format — are provided under the terms stated in the docs or in the source files themselves. The cryptographic primitives the registry relies on (Ed25519, SHA-256, Merkle proofs, Arweave) are standard and unencumbered.

8. Third-party services

The Service relies on third-party infrastructure, most notably the Arweave network for timestamping and anchoring. Arweave is operated by independent third parties and is governed by its own terms and economics. Akaeon does not control Arweave and is not responsible for the availability, durability guarantees, or governance of that network beyond what we describe in our docs.

9. Warranties and disclaimers

We provide the Service with reasonable care, consistent with the published specification. Specific cryptographic and operational properties are described in the spec at /docs/spec.

Except as expressly stated in these Terms or a separate written agreement, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that all defects will be corrected.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, in no event will Akaeon be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenues, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or in connection with the Service or these Terms, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Akaeon’s total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid Akaeon for the Service in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the liability, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (USD 100). Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages; in those jurisdictions, the limitations above apply to the extent permitted by law.

11. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold Akaeon and its officers, directors, employees, and agents harmless from and against any third-party claims, damages, liabilities, and reasonable costs (including attorneys’ fees) arising out of or related to (i) your use of the Service, (ii) your breach of these Terms, (iii) the content of any submission you make to the registry, or (iv) your violation of any law or the rights of any third party.

12. Term and termination

These Terms remain in effect while you use the Service. You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access — immediately and without prior notice — if you breach these Terms, if continued provision would expose us to legal or security risk, or if we discontinue the Service in whole or in part.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including ownership, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, and dispute resolution — survive. Records previously anchored to Arweave remain on Arweave irrespective of termination.

13. Wind-down

The Service is designed so that if Akaeon ceases operations, records previously anchored remain independently verifiable against the public Arweave network using the standalone verifier. The wind-down protocol is described in /docs/spec.

14. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The exclusive venue for any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be the state and federal courts located in Delaware, and you and we each consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. If you are a consumer in a jurisdiction that grants you the protection of mandatory local law, nothing in this section limits those protections.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Material changes will be communicated through the website or, where appropriate, by email. Your continued use of the Service after an update constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

16. Miscellaneous

These Terms, together with any separate written agreement we sign with you, constitute the entire agreement between you and Akaeon regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements on that subject. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email hunter@akaeon.com.