Terms of Service & End User License Agreement (EULA)

1. Contractual Relationship & Eligibility

This Agreement governs your access, download, license, and use of the ShikshaMitra web application, mobile applications, courses architect tools, NoteSpace workspace databases, notes directories, and all associated services (collectively, the "Software" or "Platform").

1.1. Acceptance of Terms: By creating an account or accessing the Software, you acknowledge that you are bound by this EULA. If you represent an academic institution, university, school, or corporate entity, you represent and warrant that you possess the necessary organizational authority to bind said entity to these terms.

1.2. Age Restrictions and Minor Guidelines: You must be at least 13 years of age to register for an account directly. If you are under the age of majority in your jurisdiction (typically 18 years of age), you represent that your parent or legal guardian has read, understood, and signed/consented to this EULA on your behalf. Minor users are strictly prohibited from using the Web Store without direct parental oversight.

1.3. Institutional Compliance (FERPA & COPPA): Schools and teachers using the Platform within academic environments represent that they comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Institutional accounts are responsible for securing verifiable parental consent prior to distributing login credentials to pupils under 13.

2. EULA License Grant, Scope, and Restrictions

2.1. License Grant: Subject to the terms of this Agreement and your timely payment of any applicable transaction fees, ShikshaMitra grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, non-assignable, revocable, and limited license to access and run the Software solely on your personal computer or compatible mobile device, strictly for your personal, non-commercial, educational study or academic teaching purposes.

2.2. Prohibited Uses & Restrictions: You explicitly covenant and agree that you shall not, directly or indirectly, nor allow any third party to:

1. Sublicense, lease, rent, sell, redistribute, assign, host, outsource, disclose, or otherwise commercially exploit the Software or make the Software available to any unauthorized third party.
2. Modify, adapt, alter, translate, merge, create derivative works of, or deface any portion of the Software code, designs, or HSL color tokens.
3. Decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, decrypt, bypass, or attempt to reconstruct, identify, or discover any source code, database structures, security protocols, API payloads, or hidden functions of the Software.
4. Remove, alter, or obscure any proprietary notices, copyright labels, trademarks, watermarks, or digital signatures belonging to Licensor.
5. Scrape, crawl, harvest, index, mine, or extract structural data, lecture notes, textbook summaries, or user portfolios using bots, spiders, scripts, scrapers, or other automated computational scripts.
6. Bypass, disable, circumvent, or test the vulnerability of any rate limiting tools, Cloudflare Worker proxies, Gemini API routing checks, or Firebase database rule checks.
7. Use the Software to build any competitive product, notes editor, whiteboard canvas utility, or course generation system.
8. Upload or transmit any software viruses, keyloggers, Trojan horses, rootkits, ransomware, spyware, or other destructive computational files.
9. Impersonate any student, teacher, administrator, or representative, or submit fraudulent or misleading credentials during sign-up or verification.

3. Proprietary Intellectual Property Rights

3.1. Ownership: You acknowledge and agree that the Software—including its designs, user interfaces, JavaScript algorithms, HTML structures, local storage database layouts, graphics, audio, animations, brand names (such as "ShikshaMitra", "NoteSpace", "Course Architect"), and source codes—is the sole and exclusive intellectual property of ShikshaMitra and its founders.

3.2. Preservation of Rights: All rights not expressly granted to you under Section 2.1 are reserved exclusively by ShikshaMitra. No ownership transfer, patent license, or trademark rights are implied or granted under this Agreement.

3.3. Feedback License: If you send us any feature suggestions, feedback, bug reports, or architectural improvement ideas, you grant us an unrestricted, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide, transferable license to use, implement, commercialize, and modify such feedback without any compensation or obligation to you.

4. User Content & System Licenses

4.1. User Content Ownership: Users (such as teachers and students) may upload files, textbooks, PDFs, lecture video links, whiteboard sketches, and written text documents (collectively, "User Content") to the shared library or public boards. You retain all copyright and ownership rights to your original User Content.

4.2. Licensing to the Platform: By uploading, storing, submitting, or publishing User Content on or through the Software, you grant ShikshaMitra a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully sub-licensable, transferable, and irrevocable license to host, store, cache, archive, index, parse, copy, reproduce, modify, translate, publish, distribute, and display such User Content solely for the purpose of operating, rendering, search-indexing, and promoting the educational features of the Platform.

4.3. Content Indemnity: You represent and warrant that you own or possess all necessary rights, copyrights, patents, trademarks, and consents for all User Content you share. You agree that you are solely liable for any copyright disputes, infringement claims, or academic plagiarism accusations arising from your User Content.

5. DMCA Copyright Infringement & Take-Down Policy

ShikshaMitra respects intellectual property. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512), we operate a designated takedown system for copyright complaints:

5.1. Filing a Notice: If you believe any material hosted in our notes library or linked from our lecture hall violates your copyright, you must send a written notice to our Designated Copyright Agent at shikshamitra.help@gmail.com with the following items:

• A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright.
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed.
• Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing, with precise URLs or screenshots.
• Your contact details, including email, address, and telephone number.
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner.
• 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 owner.

5.2. Counter-Notice: If your content was removed in error, you may file a counter-notification containing your signature, identification of the removed file, a statement of good faith under penalty of perjury, and consent to local court jurisdiction.

6. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Generative Services & Content Disclaimer

ShikshaMitra incorporates advanced generative artificial intelligence API services (specifically Google Gemini LLM API via proxy workers or direct API configurations) to synthesize notes, auto-explain study concepts, construct custom syllabi, and execute conversational chat assistance.

6.1. Third-Party Availability: AI models depend completely on external service endpoints (Google Generative AI). ShikshaMitra is not liable for service outages, API rate limit restrictions, token deprecations, Worker proxy blocks, or model modifications enacted by Google.

7. Local Device Storage Caching & Data Loss Waivers

To facilitate rapid document loading, student privacy, and offline accessibility, ShikshaMitra's NoteSpace Writer, whiteboard sketches, draft files, custom lecture folders, and user XP statistics write data directly to the client device's browser memory via browser storage APIs (`localStorage` and `IndexedDB`).

8. Web Store, Course Purchases, & Transaction Terms

8.1. Puter App Store Integrations: ShikshaMitra may be deployed or integrated with the Puter App Store or other third-party stores. Any billing, purchasing, or transaction processing is subject to the Terms of Service of the respective marketplace.

8.2. Digital Assets & No-Refund Policy: All digital goods, generated courses, exam sets, and notes generated or purchased on ShikshaMitra are non-tangible, digital items. Except as required by local mandatory consumer laws, all transactions are final, and **no refunds, credit returns, or transaction chargebacks** shall be issued.

8.3. Taxes: Users are responsible for all applicable taxes, internet connection costs, and hardware fees required to use the Platform.

9. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY & DAMAGE WAIVERS

READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. THIS CLAUSE DETERMINES THE MAXIMUM MONETARY LIMITATION ENFORCEABLE AGAINST SHIKSHAMITRA.

10. WARRANTY DISCLAIMERS & PLATFORM "AS-IS" USE

11. Indemnification & Legal Hold-Harmless

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold completely harmless ShikshaMitra, its creators, developers, operators, and hosting suppliers from and against any and all claims, lawsuits, actions, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising from:

• Your breach of any provision of this EULA or license restriction.
• Your user-submitted content, note uploads, or copyright representations.
• Your use or misuse of the AI generation tools, course architect settings, or local note writer.
• Your violation of third-party intellectual property or privacy rights.

12. Class Action Waiver & Collective Action Prohibition

12.1. Class Waiver: YOU AND SHIKSHAMITRA EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT ANY RESOLUTION PROCEEDINGS, LEGAL COMPLAINTS, ARBITRATIONS, OR LITIGATION PROCEEDINGS WILL BE CONDUCTED ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION.

You waive your right to participate as a class representative, class member, or private attorney general in any lawsuit, class-wide arbitration, or multi-party consolidated legal action against ShikshaMitra, its creators, or developers.

13. Binding Arbitration & Dispute Resolution

13.1. Informal Negotiation: In the event of any controversy, claim, or dispute arising out of this EULA, the parties shall first attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute through informal written negotiation by contacting shikshamitra.help@gmail.com.

13.2. Arbitration: If informal negotiation fails to reach an agreement within sixty (60) days, the dispute shall be referred to and finally settled by binding arbitration in accordance with the Arbitration rules of the jurisdiction in which the developer resides (India).

• The arbitration tribunal shall consist of a single neutral arbitrator mutually selected by both parties.
• The seat and legal venue of arbitration shall be Delhi, India.
• The arbitration language shall be English.
• The arbitrator's decision shall be final, binding, and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction.

14. Governing Law & Court Jurisdiction

This EULA, Terms of Service, and all legal disputes arising therefrom shall be governed by, interpreted, and construed in accordance with the laws of India, without reference to its conflict of law principles.

To the extent that any dispute is not subject to arbitration under Section 13, you and Licensor consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Delhi, India for the resolution of all disputes, and waive any objections regarding forum non conveniens.

15. License Termination, Clause Survival, & Miscellaneous

15.1. Term & Revocation: This license is effective from the date you first install or run the Software. ShikshaMitra reserves the right to suspend, terminate, or revoke your license instantly, without notice, if you breach any license restriction or EULA covenant.

15.2. Survival of Terms: All clauses which by their nature should logically survive termination shall survive, including Section 3 (Intellectual Property), Section 6 (AI Disclaimer), Section 7 (Local Cache), Section 9 (Limitation of Liability), Section 10 (Warranty Disclaimers), Section 11 (Indemnification), Section 12 (Class Action Waiver), Section 13 (Arbitration), Section 14 (Governing Law), and Section 15.3 (Severability).

15.3. Severability: If any tribunal or court of competent jurisdiction finds any clause or provision of this EULA to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions of this EULA shall remain in full force and effect.

16. Contact & Grievance Registration

If you have any questions, compliance concerns, copyright notices, or legal inquiries, please contact: