Intellectual Property & Terms of Service Agreement

This Intellectual Property & Terms of Service Agreement (the “Agreement”) is between the author accepting it (“Author”) and 36Seas Publishing (“36Seas”). It governs the paid First Mate software service and the publishing path Author selects. Clicking acceptance is an electronic signature. Author must be at least 18 and able to enter a binding contract.

A signup selection records Author’s service preference. It does not, by itself, grant 36Seas an exclusive publishing license or appoint 36Seas as a subsidiary-rights or media agent. Those rights become effective only for a specifically identified Work when Author accepts a completed Work Schedule or Agency Schedule.

Author retains 100% of the copyright and all ownership in manuscripts, notes, images, recordings, prompts, and other content Author submits (“Author Content”). Nothing is a copyright assignment. 36Seas receives only the limited licenses expressly stated here and in a signed schedule.

Author represents that Author owns or is authorized to use Author Content and has obtained permissions needed for publication and AI-assisted production. If Author Content identifies or depicts a real person, Author must have all legally required permissions to use that person’s name, image, likeness, voice, performance, and personal information. Author will not knowingly submit unlawful, infringing, defamatory, privacy-invasive, deceptive, or malicious content.

Author pays the applicable subscription, credit, or service fees to use First Mate and related production tools. Author retains all publishing rights, distribution control, retailer accounts, sales revenue, and royalties. 36Seas receives no exclusivity, publishing royalty, or ownership interest in the Work.

At Author’s direction, 36Seas may generate files, metadata, and assets for Author to deliver to Amazon KDP or other retailers. Author is the publisher of record and is responsible for retailer terms, pricing, tax information, content review, and final release decisions.

Author pays the service fees shown at checkout or in a Work Schedule. Only after Author accepts a completed Work Schedule for an identified Work does Author grant 36Seas an exclusive, worldwide license to reproduce, publish, distribute, market, and sell that Work in print, e-book, and audiobook formats during the stated term.

Unless a Work Schedule states different terms, the initial term is five years from first commercial publication and Net Receipts are allocated 70% to Author and 30% to 36Seas. “Net Receipts” means money actually received by 36Seas from exploitation of the licensed rights, less refunds, chargebacks, sales or withholding taxes, retailer/distributor commissions, and documented direct third-party manufacturing or fulfillment costs.

36Seas will provide statements at least quarterly and pay undisputed amounts within 45 days after each statement period, subject to a reasonable minimum-payment threshold stated in the Work Schedule. Author may audit relevant books once per calendar year on reasonable notice through an independent accountant.

For both tracks, fees purchase access to a hosted software service and do not purchase ownership in First Mate, its models, workflows, interfaces, templates, or platform software. 36Seas grants Author a limited, personal, non-transferable, revocable license to use the service during the paid term.

Author grants 36Seas a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, copy, transmit, transform, and process Author Content only as reasonably necessary to provide requested services, including structural analysis, formatting, metadata enhancement, marketing asset generation, translation preparation, accessibility work, and screenplay, pitch, or treatment generation.

When Author invokes an AI-assisted action, including generating cover artwork, voices, or video, Author directs 36Seas to transmit the limited Author Content reasonably needed for that request—such as relevant manuscript excerpts, Story Bible summaries, prompts, reference images, audio, metadata, and instructions—to contracted AI infrastructure and model providers. Current providers may include Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Vercel AI Gateway or its routed provider, Kling AI, Runway, Seedance, Replicate, Stability AI, ElevenLabs, Murf, and Typecast. 36Seas may change providers to maintain quality, availability, security, or cost controls, subject to this Agreement and the Privacy Policy. Invoking the AI action authorizes that request; First Mate is not required to present a separate provider-consent prompt each time.

36Seas will treat unpublished Author Content as confidential, apply commercially reasonable provider settings and safeguards, and will not itself use Author manuscripts to train open or public models. 36Seas will not sell Author Content. A media or model provider may process submitted materials for delivery, safety review, abuse prevention, support, legal compliance, or service improvement as permitted by 36Seas’s provider agreement and the applicable provider policy disclosed for that feature. De-identified operational telemetry that does not reproduce or disclose Author Content may be used to secure, maintain, measure, and improve First Mate.

Some First Mate media features are integrations with independent third-party production providers. The provider supplies and controls its model, moderation systems, technical infrastructure, and generation service; 36Seas supplies the First Mate workflow and access point. Provider-specific terms, acceptable-use rules, privacy disclosures, attribution requirements, technical limits, and commercial-use restrictions apply to the extent required by 36Seas’s provider agreement or displayed before the applicable generation.

For a requested media generation, 36Seas may send the selected prompt, scene or manuscript excerpt, character and setting references, uploaded images or audio, generation settings, and related identifiers to the selected provider. Providers may automatically scan, analyze, retain, or review those materials and resulting output for generation, content safety, fraud and abuse prevention, billing, support, legal compliance, and service reliability. Processing may occur outside Author’s country. Author should not submit confidential personal information or a full unpublished manuscript when a limited excerpt or production asset is sufficient.

Author may not use media features to create or distribute child sexual abuse material; sexual exploitation; non-consensual intimate imagery; unlawful pornography; content that facilitates trafficking, terrorism, violent wrongdoing, self-harm, fraud, malware, or other crime; hateful or discriminatory abuse; targeted harassment or threats; graphic violence intended to shock or glorify harm; infringing or privacy-invasive material; deceptive impersonation; unauthorized synthetic media of a real person; or content intended to mislead people about a material event, public issue, or the origin of a communication. Author may not use output to make decisions about another person’s employment, credit, housing, insurance, education, medical care, legal rights, or similarly consequential opportunities.

Author must obtain legally sufficient consent before using a real person’s face, body, voice, performance, or other identifying characteristics, and must not create sexualized, exploitative, or harmful depictions of minors. Author must not remove or evade safety controls, provenance signals, provider watermarks, notices, or legally required AI disclosures. If a provider or applicable law requires attribution or an AI-generated-content label, Author must preserve or add it when publishing the output.

36Seas and its providers may automatically screen inputs and outputs; refuse, interrupt, or remove a generation; restrict a feature; preserve relevant records; suspend an account; respond to rights complaints; or report activity when reasonably necessary to enforce these terms, protect people or the service, or comply with law. A refusal by one provider does not obligate 36Seas to route the same request to another provider.

Media models are probabilistic. Output may be inaccurate, unexpected, non-unique, unsuitable, or similar to material associated with others. Models, prices, speed, resolution, duration, attribution rules, commercial permissions, and availability may change or be withdrawn. First Mate will display material production costs and known provider restrictions before a paid generation where reasonably practicable, but 36Seas does not guarantee that a provider will accept a request or that output will be registrable, non-infringing, or fit for a particular commercial use.

First Mate provides assistance, not legal, tax, literary-agent, or professional editorial advice. Author controls whether to accept, edit, publish, or discard generated material and is responsible for final review. AI-assisted output may be inaccurate, non-unique, or require rights clearance.

As between Author and 36Seas, 36Seas claims no ownership in Author’s eligible rights in output generated specifically for Author, except for pre-existing platform materials and third-party components. Copyrightability and ownership of AI-assisted material depend on applicable law, human authorship, and any applicable provider restrictions. Author is responsible for human review, required attribution or synthetic-media disclosure, and rights clearance before publication or commercial use.

Either track may separately opt in through an Agency Schedule. No checkbox accepting this Agreement alone appoints 36Seas as agent. An Agency Schedule may authorize 36Seas to pitch and negotiate specified foreign translation, serialization, merchandising, film, television, streaming, stage, game, or other derivative rights for a defined period and territory.

Unless the Agency Schedule states otherwise, Author receives 80% and 36Seas receives 20% of Net Licensing Receipts from a deal materially secured by 36Seas. “Net Licensing Receipts” means cash actually received from the licensee, less refunds, withholding taxes, and documented third-party agent commissions or directly approved deal expenses.

36Seas may use First Mate to prepare confidential pitch decks, translations, synopses, screenplay treatments, and packaging materials for this purpose. 36Seas may not finally license or transfer a subsidiary or media right without Author’s written approval of the material deal terms.

Prices and included usage are shown before purchase. Subscriptions renew until canceled. Usage credits, expert services, managed publishing fees, and third-party production costs may be separately charged. Refund eligibility is described in the Refund & Cancellation Policy at /refund, including unused billing periods, separate credit purchases, and service cancellations. Consumed credits and completed services are generally non-refundable, subject to that policy, applicable purchase terms, and mandatory law.

Author authorizes 36Seas and its payment provider to charge the selected payment method. Author is responsible for applicable taxes other than taxes on 36Seas income. Failed or disputed payments may pause service access without expanding 36Seas rights in Author Content.

36Seas will maintain commercially reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards. No online service can promise absolute security; Author should keep independent copies and avoid uploading secrets not required for the service.

Upon account closure or valid rights reversion, 36Seas will delete or de-identify Author Content within a commercially reasonable period, except copies reasonably retained in backups, transaction records, fraud-prevention systems, or as required by law. Retained content remains protected by this Agreement.

After the initial managed-publishing term, Author may request reversion if the Work is unavailable for ordinary consumer purchase in all licensed core formats or, during the preceding 12 months, has sold fewer than 100 paid copies and generated less than $500 in Net Receipts. 36Seas has 90 days after written notice to cure.

If not cured, the managed publishing license automatically terminates, subject to a 180-day sell-off period for existing physical inventory and completion of licenses already granted. Accrued payment, accounting, confidentiality, indemnity, and approved third-party license obligations survive. Rights not expressly licensed always remain with Author.

Author may cancel the SaaS subscription as stated at checkout. Either party may terminate for a material breach not cured within 30 days after notice, or immediately for fraud, unlawful use, or a security threat. Ending platform access does not automatically terminate a separately signed Work Schedule or Agency Schedule; those documents control their own term and reversion.

The service is provided on an “as available” basis to the maximum extent permitted by law. 36Seas does not guarantee publication acceptance, retailer availability, sales, reviews, licensing deals, or commercial success.

To the extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages. 36Seas’s aggregate liability arising from the SaaS service will not exceed fees Author paid to 36Seas during the 12 months preceding the event, except where a limitation is prohibited by law or for fraud, willful misconduct, confidentiality breach, or amounts owed under a signed schedule.

Author will defend and indemnify 36Seas against third-party claims arising from Author Content or Author’s breach of the rights assurances. 36Seas will defend and indemnify Author against third-party claims that the unmodified First Mate platform infringes a U.S. intellectual-property right, subject to prompt notice and control of the defense.

Material changes will be presented with reasonable notice and, when required, renewed acceptance. A change will not expand a manuscript-specific exclusive license without Author’s separate written agreement.

Florida law governs platform disputes, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and state or federal courts serving Flagler County, Florida have exclusive venue, unless a Work Schedule states otherwise or consumer law requires another forum. Before filing, the parties will attempt good-faith resolution for 30 days.

This Agreement, the Privacy Policy, the Refund & Cancellation Policy, checkout terms, and any accepted Work or Agency Schedule are the complete agreement for their subject matter. A schedule controls if it expressly conflicts with this Agreement. Invalid terms will be narrowed or severed; waiver must be written; notices may be electronic; neither party may assign a manuscript-specific agreement except in connection with a permitted business succession that assumes all obligations.