TERMS OF USE

 Last Updated: April 7, 2022

This page explains the terms by which you may use  and uses StoryFile website located at https://storyfile.com, the StoryFile Life website located at https://life.storyfile.com (together, the “Site”), provided by StoryFile, Inc. (“StoryFile” or “we”), our online and mobile services, and the online products available through the Site (collectively together with the Site, the Service). By clicking “I Agree” or by accessing or using our Service, you agree to these Terms, including the mandatory arbitration provision and class action waiver in Section 17, and to the collection and use of your information as set forth in our Privacy Policy, whether or not you are a registered user of our Service.   If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use our Service.

If you have any questions about these Terms or our Service, please contact us at legal@storyfile.com.  For information about how we collect, use, share and otherwise process information about you, please see our Privacy Policy.

ELIGIBILITY; AUTHORITY

You must be at least 18 years of age to create an account on our Site.  By creating an account, you represent and warrant that you are 18 years of age or older.

ACCOUNTS AND ACCOUNT SECURITY

You may need to register for an account to enable access to some or all of our Service. Your account may be a free trial or a paid version based on our current offerings, which we may change at any time. If you register for an account, you must provide accurate account information and promptly update this information if it changes.  You also must maintain the security of your account and promptly notify us if you discover or suspect that someone has accessed your account without your permission.  You are responsible for safeguarding the password that you use to access the Service.  If you permit others to use your account credentials, you are responsible for the activities of such users that occur in connection with your account.

STORYFILE VIDEOS

The Service uses proprietary technology (the “StoryFile Technology”) to create video content (the “StoryFile Videos”) that enable users to engage in a life-like conversational video interaction with the subject of the StoryFile Video (the “Subject”). The StoryFile Technology is designed to emulate a dialogue by selecting answers, from within the database of pre-recorded content recorded by the Subject, that are responsive to a user’s question, based on StoryFile’s proprietary algorithms.  StoryFile will host the StoryFile Videos, subject to reasonable limits on storage, storage fees, or other terms, as may be imposed by StoryFile from time to time upon written notice to you (or as set forth in these Terms), and StoryFile’s right to terminate at any time.  In the event of termination of the Service, or of your access to the Service, other than due to any breach by you, StoryFile will make reasonable efforts, where feasible, to provide you the opportunity to download a copy of your StoryFile Video, which you understand will not be interactive without the StoryFile Technology. However, you understand and agree that StoryFile reserves the right to impose certain requirements, such as a fee for such download to offset its costs.  STORYFILE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES THAT THE STORYFILE VIDEO OR THE STORYFILE TECHNOLOGY WILL ALWAYS BE ACCESSIBLE OR AVAILABLE OR WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE.

VOICE RECORDINGS AND TRANSCRIPTS

You acknowledge and agree that when you interact by voice with a StoryFile Video through the Service, an audio file of your voice (the “Recording”) is captured and that such Recording may be accessed and processed by our speech recognition provider in order to create a transcript of your interaction (the “Transcript”) and facilitate your conversations and interactions with our Service.  The Recording is not retained after it is processed and is not used for any other purpose, but you agree that the Transcript may be used and retained to provide, maintain, analyze and improve our Service, including for quality control, to develop, test, enhance or improve speech recognition technology and artificial intelligence algorithms, and for other research and development and data analysis purposes.  You (i) consent to the creation of the Recording and the Transcript and the use thereof as described herein and in the Privacy Policy; and (ii) release and discharge StoryFile and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and assigns (collectively and individually, the “StoryFile Parties”) from all liability for any claims that the creation or use of the Recording or Transcript by StoryFile (or any party on its behalf) as authorized in these Terms violates any of your rights, including intellectual property rights or rights of publicity or privacy.  You also acknowledge and agree that you will not be entitled to any additional compensation for the use of any of the Transcripts as authorized under these Terms.

USER CONTENT

  • Our Service may allow you and other users to create, post, store and share text, photos, videos, documents, artwork, music, and other content and materials including as part of your StoryFile Video (collectively, “User Content”). Except as otherwise provided herein, you retain all rights in and to your User Content, excluding any StoryFile Videos and other portions of the Service included in your User Content.

 

  • You grant StoryFile and its subsidiaries and affiliates a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and publicly display your User Content, and your name, voice, and likeness as contained therein, in and in connection with your StoryFile Videos and the Service in all media formats and channels now known or later developed without compensation to you. Depending on your account settings, when you post or otherwise share User Content on or through our Service, you understand that your User Content and any associated information (such as your username or profile photo) may be visible to others in accordance with such settings.

 

  • You may not create, post, store or share any User Content that violates these Terms or for which you do not have all the rights necessary to grant us the license described above. You represent and warrant that your User Content, and our use of such content as permitted by these Terms, will not violate any rights of or cause injury to any person or entity. Although we have no obligation to screen, edit or monitor User Content, we may delete or remove User Content at any time and for any reason with or without notice.

PROHIBITED CONDUCT AND CONTENT

  • You agree that you will not do any of the following in connection with the Service:
  • Use or attempt to use another user’s account without authorization from that user and StoryFile;
  • Impersonate or post on behalf of any person or entity or otherwise misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or entity;
  • Sell, resell, sublicense, or commercially use our Service;
  • Copy, reproduce, distribute, publicly perform or publicly display all or portions of our Service, except as expressly permitted by us or our licensors;
  • Modify, adapt, or hack our Service, remove any proprietary rights notices or markings, or otherwise make any derivative works based upon our Service;
  • Use our Service other than for its intended purpose and in any manner that could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect or inhibit other users from fully enjoying our Service or that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the functioning of our Service in any manner;
  • Reverse engineer any aspect of our Service or do anything that might discover source code or bypass or circumvent measures employed to prevent or limit access to any part of our Service;
  • Use any data mining, robots or similar data gathering or extraction methods designed to scrape or extract data from our Service;
  • Develop or use any applications that interact with our Service without our prior written consent;
  • Violate any applicable law, contract, intellectual property right or other third-party rights;
  • Bypass or ignore instructions contained in our robots.txt file;
  • Engage in any harassing, threatening, intimidating, predatory or stalking conduct; or
  • Use our Service for any illegal or unauthorized purpose, or engage in, encourage or promote any activity that violates these Terms.
  • You may also post or otherwise share only User Content that is nonconfidential and that you have all necessary rights to disclose. You may not create, post, store or share any User Content that, in our sole judgment:

▪     Is unlawful, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, indecent, lewd, suggestive, harassing, threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, inflammatory or fraudulent;

▪     Would constitute, encourage or provide instructions for a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party or otherwise create liability or violate any local, state, national or international law;

▪     May infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other intellectual or proprietary right of any party;

▪     Contains or depicts any statements, content, remarks or claims that are false, misleading, deceptive, or fraudulent;

▪     Impersonates, or misrepresents your affiliation with, any person or entity;

▪     Contains any unsolicited promotions, political campaigning, advertising or solicitations;

▪     Contains any private or personal information of a third party without such third party’s consent;

▪     Contains any viruses, corrupted data or other harmful, disruptive or destructive files or content; or

▪     Is objectionable, restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying our Service, or may expose StoryFile or others to any harm or liability of any type.

  • Enforcement of these rules is solely at StoryFile’s discretion, and failure to enforce this section in some instances does not constitute a waiver of our right to enforce it in other instances. In addition, these rules do not create any private right of action on the part of any third party or any reasonable expectation that the Service will not contain any content that is prohibited by such rules.

 

OWENERSHIP; LIMITED LICENSE

(a)                The Service, including the StoryFile Technology, the Site, the text, graphics, images, photographs, videos, illustrations and other content contained therein, and all StoryFile Videos (but excluding any User Content contained therein), are owned by StoryFile or our licensors and are protected under both United States and foreign laws.  Except as explicitly stated in these Terms, all rights in and to the Service are reserved by us or our licensors.

(b)               Subject to your compliance with these Terms, you are hereby granted a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use our Service and to download your StoryFile Videos solely for your own personal, noncommercial use.  Any use of the Service other than as specifically authorized herein, without our prior written permission, is strictly prohibited, will terminate the license granted herein and violate our intellectual property rights.  You may not upload, port, or adapt the StoryFile Videos or use or permit the StoryFile Videos to be hosted on another platform in an interactive manner, unless expressly authorized in writing by StoryFile.  If you are permitted to use the StoryFile Videos on a third-party platform, you will prominently and conspicuously display, on or near any presentation of the StoryFile Video, an attribution or credit line such as “Powered by StoryFile” as approved by StoryFile designating the source and origin of the StoryFile Video.

 

TRADEMARKS

STORYFILE®, STORYFILE LIFE™, WHAT’S YOUR STORY™, CONVERSA™, and our logos, slogans, and the look and feel of the Service are trademarks of StoryFile and may not be copied, imitated or used, in whole or in part, without our prior written permission. All other trademarks, registered trademarks, product names and company names or logos mentioned on or in connection with the Service are the property of their respective owners.  Reference to any products, services, processes or other information by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, supplier or otherwise, or to individuals, does not constitute or imply any endorsement, affiliation, sponsorship or recommendation.

FEEDBACK

You may voluntarily submit or otherwise communicate to us any questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, original or creative materials or other information about StoryFile or our Service (collectively, “Feedback”). You understand and agree that we have no obligation to treat Feedback as confidential and that we may use such Feedback for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you, including to develop, copy, publish, or improve the Feedback in StoryFile’s sole discretion.

REPEAT INFRINGER POLICY; COPYRIGHT COMPLAINTS

In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other applicable law, we have adopted a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that anything on our Service infringes any copyright that you own or control, you may notify StoryFile’s designated agent as follows:

Designated Agent:      Copyright Agent

Address:                      734 North Highland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038

Telephone Number:    +1 (833) 786-7934

E-Mail Address:           dmca@storyfile.com

Please see 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) for the requirements of a proper notification.  Also, please note that if you knowingly misrepresent that any activity or material on our Service is infringing, you may be liable to StoryFile for certain costs and damages.

THIRD-PARTY CONTENT; THIRD-PARTY CHARITIES, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

We may provide, or may provide links to or information about, third-party content through the Service (collectively, “Third-Party Content”). We provide Third-Party Content as a service to those interested in such content. StoryFile does not control or endorse, and makes no representations or warranties regarding, any Third-Party Content, including without limitation regarding its accuracy or completeness.  You acknowledge and agree that StoryFile is not responsible or liable for, and undertakes no responsibility to update or review, any Third-Party Content.  Your access to and use of such Third-Party Content is at your own risk.

StoryFile may also provide information about or links to third-party charities, products or services on the Service.  StoryFile does not endorse or make any representations or warranties regarding any third-party charities, products or services or any related promotions or vendors.  Your business dealings or correspondence with, or participation in promotions of, such third parties, and any terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings or promotions, are solely between you and such third party.  StoryFile is not responsible or liable in any manner for any third-party charities, products or services, for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any donations you may make or any products, services, dealings or promotions.

INDEMNIFICATION

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you will indemnify, defend and hold harmless the StoryFile Parties from and against any losses, liabilities, claims, actions, judgements, demands, damages, expenses or costs (“Claims”) arising out of or related to (i) your User Content or Feedback; (ii) your violation of these Terms or of any rights of another user or a third party (including intellectual property rights or privacy rights); or (iii) your conduct in connection with the Service.  You agree to promptly notify the StoryFile Parties of any third-party Claims, cooperate with the StoryFile Parties in defending such Claims, and pay all fees, costs and expenses associated with defending such Claims (including attorneys’ fees).  You also agree that the StoryFile Parties will have control of the defense or settlement, at StoryFile’s sole option, of any third-party Claims.  This indemnity is in addition to, and not in lieu of, any other indemnities set forth in a written agreement between you and StoryFile or the other StoryFile Parties.

DISCLAIMERS

YOUR USE OF OUR SERVICE ARE AT YOUR SOLE RISK. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, OUR SERVICE AND ANY CONTENT THEREIN (INCLUDING ALL STORYFILE VIDEOS) ARE PROVIDED TO YOU ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.  IN ADDITION, STORYFILE DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT OUR SERVICE OR ACCESS TO YOUR STORYFILE VIDEOS WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, RELIABLE, CURRENT, UNINTERRUPTED, PERPETUAL, OR ERROR-FREE.  WHILE STORYFILE ATTEMPTS TO MAKE YOUR USE OF OUR SERVICE AND ANY CONTENT THEREIN SAFE, WE CANNOT AND DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT OUR SERVICE OR SERVERS ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.  YOU ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SERVICE.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, StoryFile and the other StoryFile Parties will not be liable to you under any theory of liability—whether based in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, warranty, or otherwise—for any indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, punitive or special damages or lost profits, even if StoryFile or the other StoryFile Parties have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

The total liability of StoryFile and the other StoryFile Parties for any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or our Service, including in connection with any StoryFile Videos, regardless of the form of the action, is limited to the greater of $5 or the amount paid by you to use our Service in connection with which the claim arises.

The limitations set forth in this Section 14 will not limit or exclude liability for the gross negligence, fraud or intentional misconduct of StoryFile or the other StoryFile Parties or for any other matters in which liability cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law. Additionally, some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations or exclusions may not apply to you.

RELEASE

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you release StoryFile and the other StoryFile Parties from responsibility, liability, claims, demands and/or damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown (including claims of negligence), arising out of or related to disputes between users and the acts or omissions of third parties.  If you are a consumer who resides in California, you hereby waive your rights under California Civil Code § 1542, which provides: “A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release, which if known by him or her must have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor.”

TRANSFER AND PROCESSING DATA

In order for us to provide our Service, you agree that we may process, transfer and store information about you in the United States and other countries, where you may not have the same rights and protections as you do under local law.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION; BINDING ARBITRATION

Please read the following section carefully because it requires you to arbitrate certain disputes and claims with StoryFile and limits the manner in which you can seek relief from us, unless you opt out of arbitration by following the instructions set forth below. No class or representative actions or arbitrations are allowed under this arbitration provision.  In addition, arbitration precludes you from suing in court or having a jury trial.

No Representative Actions. You and StoryFile agree that any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or our Service is personal to you and StoryFile and that any dispute will be resolved solely through individual action, and will not be brought as a class arbitration, class action or any other type of representative proceeding.

Arbitration of Disputes. Except for small claims disputes in which you or StoryFile seeks to bring an individual action in small claims court located in the county of your billing address or disputes in which you or StoryFile seeks injunctive or other equitable relief for the alleged infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property, you and StoryFile waive your rights to a jury trial and to have any other dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or our Service, including claims related to privacy and data security, (collectively, “Disputes”) resolved in court.  Instead, for any Dispute that you have against StoryFile you agree to first contact StoryFile and attempt to resolve the claim informally by sending a written notice of your claim (“Notice”) to StoryFile by email at legal@storyfile.com.  The Notice must (i) include your name, residence address, email address, and telephone number; (ii) describe the nature and basis of the Dispute; and (iii) set forth the specific relief sought.  Our notice to you will be similar in form to that described above.  If you and StoryFile cannot reach an agreement to resolve the Dispute within thirty (30) days after such Notice is received, then either party may submit the Dispute to binding arbitration administered by JAMS or, under the limited circumstances set forth above, in court.  All Disputes submitted to JAMS will be resolved through confidential, binding arbitration before one arbitrator.  Arbitration proceedings will be held in Los Angeles, California.  For purposes of this Section 17, a “consumer” means a person using the Service for personal, family or household purposes.  You and StoryFile agree that Disputes will be held in accordance with the JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures (“JAMS Rules”).  The most recent version of the JAMS Rules are available on the JAMS website and are hereby incorporated by reference.  You either acknowledge and agree that you have read and understand the JAMS Rules or waive your opportunity to read the JAMS Rules and waive any claim that the JAMS Rules are unfair or should not apply for any reason.

You and StoryFile agree that these Terms affect interstate commerce and that the enforceability of this Section 17 will be substantively and procedurally governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1, et seq. (the “FAA”), to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.  As limited by the FAA, these Terms and the JAMS Rules, the arbitrator will have exclusive authority to make all procedural and substantive decisions regarding any Dispute and to grant any remedy that would otherwise be available in court, including the power to determine the question of arbitrability.  The arbitrator may conduct only an individual arbitration and may not consolidate more than one individual’s claims, preside over any type of class or representative proceeding or preside over any proceeding involving more than one individual.

The arbitration will allow for the discovery or exchange of non-privileged information relevant to the Dispute.  The arbitrator, StoryFile, and you will maintain the confidentiality of any arbitration proceedings, judgments and awards, including information gathered, prepared and presented for purposes of the arbitration or related to the Dispute(s) therein.  The arbitrator will have the authority to make appropriate rulings to safeguard confidentiality, unless the law provides to the contrary.  The duty of confidentiality does not apply to the extent that disclosure is necessary to prepare for or conduct the arbitration hearing on the merits, in connection with a court application for a preliminary remedy or in connection with a judicial challenge to an arbitration award or its enforcement, or to the extent that disclosure is otherwise required by law or judicial decision.

You and StoryFile agree that for any arbitration you initiate, you will pay the filing fee (up to a maximum of $250 if you are a consumer), and StoryFile will pay the remaining JAMS fees and costs.  For any arbitration initiated by StoryFile, StoryFile will pay all JAMS fees and costs.  You and StoryFile agree that the state or federal courts of the State of California and the United States sitting in Los Angeles County, California have exclusive jurisdiction over any appeals and the enforcement of an arbitration award.

Any Dispute must be filed within one year after the relevant claim arose; otherwise, the Dispute is permanently barred, which means that you and StoryFile will not have the right to assert the claim.

You have the right to opt out of binding arbitration within 30 days of the date you first accepted the terms of this Section 17 by emailing us at legal@storyfile.com.  In order to be effective, the opt-out notice must include your full name and address and clearly indicate your intent to opt out of binding arbitration.  By opting out of binding arbitration, you are agreeing to resolve Disputes in accordance with Section 18.

If any portion of this Section 17 is found to be unenforceable or unlawful for any reason, (i) the unenforceable or unlawful provision shall be severed from these Terms; (ii) severance of the unenforceable or unlawful provision shall have no impact whatsoever on the remainder of this Section 17 or the parties’ ability to compel arbitration of any remaining claims on an individual basis pursuant to this Section 17; and (iii) to the extent that any claims must therefore proceed on a class, collective, consolidated, or representative basis, such claims must be litigated in a civil court of competent jurisdiction and not in arbitration, and the parties agree that litigation of those claims shall be stayed pending the outcome of any individual claims in arbitration. Further, if any part of this Section 17 is found to prohibit an individual claim seeking public injunctive relief, that provision will have no effect to the extent such relief is allowed to be sought out of arbitration, and the remainder of this Section 17 will be enforceable.

GOVERNING LAW AND VENUE

Any dispute arising from these Terms and your use of the Service will be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of California, except to the extent preempted by U.S. federal law, without regard to conflict of law rules or principles (whether of California or any other jurisdiction) that would cause the application of the laws of any other jurisdiction.  Any dispute between the parties that is not subject to arbitration or cannot be heard in small claims court will be resolved in the state or federal courts of California and the United States, respectively, sitting in Los Angeles County, California.

MODIFYING AND TERMINATING OUR SERVICE

We reserve the right to modify our Service or to suspend or stop providing all or portions of our Service, or to terminate your use of the Service, at any time in our sole discretion, including terminating the hosting of StoryFile Videos and the availability of the StoryFile Technology. You also have the right to stop using our Service at any time.  We are not responsible for any loss or harm related to your inability to access or use our Service, including your StoryFile Videos, for any reason.  In any such event, access to your StoryFile Videos will be in accordance with Section 3 of these Terms.

ADDITIONAL TERMS AND AMENDMENTS

  • We may supply different or additional terms in relation to some portions of our Service, and those different or additional terms become part of your agreement with us if you use those Service. If there is a conflict between these Terms and the additional terms, the additional terms will control for that conflict.

 

  • We may make changes to these Terms from time to time. If we make materials changes, we will provide you with notice of such changes, such as by sending an email, providing a notice through our Service or updating the date at the top of these Terms.  Unless we say otherwise in our notice, the amended Terms will be effective immediately, and your continued use of our Service after we provide such notice will confirm your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree to the amended Terms, you must stop using our Service.

SEVERABILITY

If any provision or part of a provision of these Terms is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from these Terms and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • The failure of StoryFile to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. These Terms reflect the entire agreement between the parties relating to the subject matter hereof and supersede all prior agreements, representations, statements and understandings of the parties.  The section titles in these Terms are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.  Use of the word “including” will be interpreted to mean “including without limitation.” Except as otherwise provided herein, these Terms are intended solely for the benefit of the parties and are not intended to confer third-party beneficiary rights upon any other person or entity.  You agree that communications and transactions between us may be conducted electronically.

 

  • Under California Civil Code Section 1789.3, California consumers are entitled to the following specific consumer rights notice: The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 1625 N. Market Blvd., Suite N-112, Sacramento, California 95834, or by telephone at 1 (800) 952-5210.