Diarmi Terms of Service

You Own Your Work

At Diarmi, we believe the future of storytelling is collaborative, but your creativity belongs to you. These Terms govern your use of the Diarmi platform, which operates as a membership-based community for collaborative fiction.

1. Definitions

To ensure clarity, we use the following definitions:

• "The Canon Path": The original storyline, including the original characters, settings, and plot outlines created by the originating author.
• "Contributor Path": An alternative storyline, deviation, or branch created by a user that "forks" from a Canon Path or another Contributor Path.
• "Contributing": The act of writing a Path that branches off an existing storyline.
• "Passage": A single unit of text (a page or block) within a story.
• "Fanfiction": Content based on pre-existing third-party intellectual property (e.g., Harry Potter, Star Wars) not owned by the user.

2. Service Tiers & Access

To respect copyright laws and ensure fair billing, Diarmi operates on a split-access model:

2.1 The Public Tier (Free)

Access to read and write Fanfiction is provided free of charge to the public. Diarmi does not charge for, nor do we pay royalties on, Fanfiction content.

2.2 The Membership Tier (Diarmi Unlimited)

Diarmi charges a subscription fee for access to our "Unlimited" tier.

• What You Are Paying For: You acknowledge that your subscription fee is payment for access to the Platform Service, including advanced writing tools, contribution features, community forums, and server maintenance.
• Not a Content Purchase: You agree that the subscription fee is not a purchase of any specific story or book.

3. Licenses & Permissions

3.1 The Platform License (What you grant us)

By posting content to Diarmi, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, display, format, and distribute your work on the Diarmi platform.

• Community Access: You agree that if you post Original Content (Canon Paths), it will be accessible to other Diarmi Members as part of the community library.
• Promotional Rights: By publishing content on Diarmi, you grant Diarmi the right to promote, feature, and advertise your stories and associated content (including titles, excerpts, cover images, and author name) across online channels, social media, and advertising platforms for the purpose of promoting both your work and the Diarmi platform. This promotional license remains in effect for as long as your content is published on diarmi.com and is automatically revoked when you unpublish or remove your content from the platform.

3.2 The Pathfinding License (Inter-User Rights)

Diarmi is built on contributing to narratives. By posting a Canon Path, you grant other Diarmi users a limited, non-exclusive license to create "Contributor Paths" (derivative works) based on your content solely within the Diarmi platform.

• Restrictions: This license does not grant other users ownership of your characters or settings. They cannot take your characters and use them outside of Diarmi (e.g., selling a novel on Amazon) without your direct permission.

4. Ownership & Derivative Works

4.1 Ownership of The Canon Path

The creator of the Canon Path owns the characters, settings, and original plot.

4.2 Ownership of The Contributor Path

If User B contributes a Path to User A's story:

• User B owns the specific text and original elements they contributed in that Path.
• User B does NOT own User A's underlying characters or world.
• Result: User B cannot commercially exploit their Contributor Path independently because it relies on User A's IP. User A cannot commercially exploit User B's specific text without permission. They are mutually dependent.

5. Monetization (The Authors Guild)

While the subscription fee pays for the Service, we aim to reward popular creators.

5.1 Governance

Diarmi reserves the sole right to determine eligibility, payout calculations, and qualification tiers for the Authors Guild. These rules are outlined in the Authors Guild Policy, which Diarmi may update, modify, or suspend at any time to ensure the financial health of the community.

5.2 Revenue Share

If you qualify for the Authors Guild, you may be eligible to receive a portion of the "Creator Pool." Payouts are calculated based on reader engagement (e.g., time spent reading, paths followed) and your contribution tier.

• Non-Guild Content: If you do not meet the qualifications for the Authors Guild, your Original Content remains accessible to the community as part of the library, but you will not accrue royalties. You acknowledge that Diarmi's retention of subscription revenue in this case is fair compensation for hosting, tools, and audience access.

6. Fanfiction Policy

6.1 Zero Monetization

You agree that you will not attempt to monetize Fanfiction on Diarmi.

6.2 Indemnity

You are solely responsible for your Fanfiction. If you violate a third party's copyright, you agree to indemnify and hold Diarmi harmless from any resulting legal claims or damages.

7. Unpublishing & The "Drafts" Protocol

You may unpublish your work at any time. However, to protect the collaborative nature of the community:

• If You Delete a Canon Path: Your text is removed from the public directory.
• Contributor Paths Move to Drafts: Any Contributor Paths written by other users attached to your work will be automatically moved to their private "Drafts" folder.
• IP Warning for Contributors: If your Contributor Path is returned to Drafts because the Canon Path was deleted, you generally cannot publish this Draft elsewhere. Because your Draft likely contains the characters or settings of the Canon Path owner, publishing it independently without their permission would constitute copyright infringement (creating an unauthorized derivative work).

8. Artificial Intelligence & Automated Processing

8.1 No Training on User Content

Diarmi does not use your Story Content, Passages, or personal data to train generative artificial intelligence models (LLMs). We do not claim ownership of your narrative voice, style, or characters for the purpose of creating derivative AI models or competing works.

8.2 Use of Automated Technologies

To provide the Service and enhance the reader experience, Diarmi utilizes select automated processing and artificial intelligence technologies. By using the Service, you acknowledge and agree that your content may be processed for the following operational purposes:

• Content Moderation: Automated scanning to detect hate speech, spam, policy violations, or to classify content likelihood of being AI-generated.
• Visual Assets: The generation of cover images, thumbnails, or visual representations to display your content within the Service.
• Accessibility & Audio: The conversion of text to speech to power audio playback and accessibility features (e.g., via third-party providers like ElevenLabs).

8.3 Prohibition on Scraping and Mining

Strictly Prohibited: Accessing or using any part of the Service, including but not limited to public story URLs, profiles, or API endpoints, for the purpose of:

• “Scraping,” “Mining,” or “Harvesting” data, text, or metadata;
• Training, fine-tuning, or testing artificial intelligence or machine learning models; or
• Creating datasets for future training of such models;

is expressly forbidden. This prohibition applies to all users, bots, crawlers, and third-party entities. Diarmi reserves the right to employ technical measures to block such activities and to pursue legal action against entities that violate this provision to protect our authors' intellectual property.

9. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

9.1 "As Is" Service

Diarmi is provided "as is." We do not guarantee that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free.

9.2 Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Diarmi shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages. Our total liability shall not exceed the amount you paid to Diarmi in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim.

10. Dispute Resolution

10.1 Class Action Waiver

You and Diarmi 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 action. Unless both you and Diarmi agree, no arbitrator or judge may consolidate more than one person's claims or otherwise preside over any form of a representative proceeding.

10.2 Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any disputes shall be resolved through binding arbitration in Englewood.

11. Termination & Suspension

• Termination by Us (For Cause): We may suspend or terminate your account without refund if we determine in our sole discretion that you have violated these Terms, engaged in harassment, or are a repeat infringer of copyright.
• Termination by Us (For Convenience): If we terminate your account for reasons other than a violation (e.g., discontinuing the service), we will provide a pro-rated refund.

12. DMCA Copyright Notice

Diarmi respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects our users to do the same. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), we will respond to claims of copyright infringement that are reported to our Designated Copyright Agent.

If you believe that content on Diarmi infringes your copyright, please send a notice to legal@diarmi.com containing the following:

• A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner (or someone authorized to act on their behalf).
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed.
• Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing, and enough information for us to locate it (usually a specific URL).
• Your contact information, including address, telephone number, and email.
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.