Terms of Service

String Theory is made by Grumpy Gopher, LLC, a Montana limited liability company ("we," "us"). These terms are the agreement between you and us for the String Theory service—the app at app.stringtheoryconnect.com, this website, and pages published from the app. By creating an account, or by using the service with an account, you accept these terms. If you don't agree with them, don't use the service.

We've written these terms to be readable rather than exhaustive. Plain-language summaries don't replace the actual terms, but we've tried to make the actual terms plain-language.

1. Who can use String Theory

You must be 13 years of age or older to create an account. When you create an account you confirm that you are, and we record that confirmation. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 13, we will close it.

To buy a paid plan you must be 18 or older, or the age of majority where you live if that is higher. A parent or guardian can buy a plan for a younger user, and is then the customer responsible for it.

2. Your account

Sign-in is handled by our authentication provider, Clerk. You're responsible for what happens under your account, and for keeping your sign-in method (your email inbox) secure. Tell us promptly at info@stringtheoryconnect.com if you believe your account has been compromised.

3. Your content stays yours

Everything you put into String Theory—boards, entities, connections, notes, tags, and media—is yours. We claim no ownership of it.

To run the service, we need your permission to handle that content: you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, and transmit your content solely to operate, back up, and provide the service to you and the people you choose to share with. If you publish a board with a share link, that license includes displaying the shared project to the people who open the link, for as long as the share is active. The license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for the short period content persists in backups.

4. You're responsible for what you upload and publish

String Theory lets you upload images, documents, and media, and link to material elsewhere. You warrant that you have the rights you need to any content you upload, link, or publish—that it's yours, licensed to you, or lawfully usable by you. If someone brings a claim against us because your content infringed their rights or broke the law, you agree to indemnify us—that is, to cover the losses and reasonable legal costs the claim causes us.

When you publish a share link, you're the publisher of that page. We host shared content; we don't review, endorse, or fact-check it, and shared pages say so.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to use String Theory to:

• break the law, or encourage anyone else to;
• publish content you know to be false about a real person as though it were fact. Boards that explore real cases, name real people, and lay out theories are what String Theory is for—but present theory as theory, source your claims where you can, and don't use a board to harass, threaten, or defame anyone;
• infringe anyone's copyright, trademark, or privacy rights;
• upload malware, probe or disrupt the service, or access another workspace's data;
• share content that sexualizes minors, in any form—this results in immediate account termination and, where required, a report to authorities.

We don't pre-screen content, but we may remove content or disable share links that violate these terms, and we may suspend or terminate accounts for serious or repeated violations.

6. Seats, classes, and resale

Plans that include multiple seats are for your own workspace's collaborators. You may not resell seats, sublicense the service, or operate String Theory as a service for third parties—if you want to build something on top of String Theory, talk to us first.

Classroom. A Classroom plan is for one teacher, and running classes for your own students with it is not operating the service for third parties. Its class codes are for your own students; don't publish them or give them to anyone else. Each student who joins a class uses their own String Theory account under these terms, including the rule that they are 13 or older, and is never charged for it. Your access to a student's work is read-only, covers only the project they linked to your class, and ends when the class closes or reaches its end date, when the student leaves or you remove them, or when your plan ends. Some schools and districts require permission, a review, or a signed agreement before a teacher uses an online tool with students; you are responsible for knowing and meeting your school's requirements. We have no agreement with your school or district unless we have signed one with it directly.

7. Copyright complaints (DMCA)

We respond to copyright infringement notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you believe content hosted on String Theory infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent: dmca@stringtheoryconnect.com (Grumpy Gopher, LLC, DMCA Agent). Your notice must include: your physical or electronic signature; identification of the copyrighted work; the URL of the infringing material (a share-page link, for shared boards); your contact information; a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and you are authorized to act for the copyright owner.

When we receive a valid notice, we will remove or disable access to the material expeditiously and notify the user who posted it. That user may send a counter-notice (with their signature, identification of the removed material, a statement under penalty of perjury of good-faith belief the removal was a mistake, their contact information, and consent to federal court jurisdiction); if we receive one, we may restore the material in 10–14 business days unless the complainant tells us they've filed a court action.

Repeat infringers lose their accounts. We track infringement notices per account and will terminate accounts that repeatedly infringe.

8. Plans, changes, and availability

Your plan's limits (projects, entities, storage, seats, sharing options) are shown in the app. We may change the service and our plans over time; if a change removes a capability your plan carried, existing content is never deleted and stays editable—what stops is adding more, until you're back within limits. String Theory is a small product from a small company: we work hard to keep it available and backed up, but we don't promise uninterrupted service.

Refunds, cancellation, and exactly what happens to your work when a plan ends are covered in our Refund & Cancellation Policy, which forms part of these terms.

9. Paid plans, renewal, and canceling

Paid plans are subscriptions. They are sold through Paddle, which acts as the merchant of record, as the Refund & Cancellation Policy explains. A subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period, monthly or yearly, until you cancel it.

Before you pay, we show you the plan, its price, how often you'll be charged, the date of the next charge, and how to cancel. We then ask you to agree to the recurring charge separately from anything else, and we keep a record of that agreement.

You can cancel any time, online, with one click and a confirmation from your account settings. You won't have to call, email, or turn down an offer first. Canceling stops the next renewal; you keep the paid plan until the end of the period you've already paid for.

We email you before a renewal: 30 days before an annual plan renews, and once a year for a monthly plan. Each reminder gives the date, the price, and how to cancel. If we change the price of your subscription, we email you between 7 and 30 days before the new price applies, and you can cancel before it does.

We don't offer free trials that turn into paid plans, and the Free plan never becomes a paid plan on its own. You start paying only by subscribing yourself.

10. Leaving

You can export your data (Account → Export) and delete your account (Account → Delete) from inside the app, at any time, without asking us. Deleting your account removes the workspaces you own—export first. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms; if we terminate the service itself, we'll give you reasonable notice and time to export.

11. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. CONTENT ON SHARED PAGES IS THE PUBLISHER'S, NOT OURS, AND WE MAKE NO WARRANTY ABOUT ITS ACCURACY.

12. Limits on our liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE, OR (B) FIFTY US DOLLARS ($50). Some jurisdictions don't allow certain limitations; where that's you, these limits apply to the fullest extent they lawfully can.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Montana, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Montana, and both of us consent to their jurisdiction.

14. Changes to these terms

If we make a material change, we'll bump the version above and the app will ask you to accept the new version before you continue—we won't change the deal silently. Non-material fixes (typos, clarifications) may be made without re-acceptance. Continued use after a non-material change is acceptance of it.

15. Contact

Grumpy Gopher, LLC · info@stringtheoryconnect.com · copyright notices to dmca@stringtheoryconnect.com.