Terms of Service

1. Who we are

RUIN is operated by James Reid, a sole trader based in England, United Kingdom ("RUIN", "we", "us"). These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the RUIN application, website, and any related services (collectively, the "Service"). By creating an account or otherwise using the Service you agree to be bound by these Terms.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under 18 you confirm that you have permission from a parent or legal guardian. If you are accessing the Service on behalf of a school, museum, society, or other organisation, you confirm you are authorised to bind that organisation to these Terms.

3. Your account

You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential and for everything that happens under your account. Notify us promptly at support@ruinapp.com if you suspect unauthorised access. We may suspend or terminate accounts that repeatedly breach these Terms or our Acceptable Use Policy.

4. Your content — licence to RUIN

You retain ownership of the photographs and text you upload ("Your Content"). You grant RUIN a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable licence to host, store, reproduce, modify, transcode, transmit, publicly display, and create derivative works from Your Content for the limited purposes of:

• Operating, providing, and improving the Service.
• Submitting Your Content to AI image-generation and moderation providers (currently Google Gemini and OpenAI) so that the Service can produce historical reconstructions and screen for prohibited content.
• Displaying Your Content to other users in the in-app feed, map, and AR viewer.
• Generating Open Graph previews when posts are shared to other platforms.

This licence ends when you delete the relevant content or your account, except that we may retain backup or cached copies for a reasonable period and may retain copies required to comply with legal obligations or to defend legal claims. You confirm that you have all rights necessary to grant this licence and that Your Content does not infringe anyone else's rights.

5. AI-generated content

Reconstructions, dioramas, cutouts, badges, banners and other imagery produced by the Service from Your Content (collectively, "AI Outputs") are owned by RUIN. We grant you a personal, worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free licence to view AI Outputs derived from your own posts within the Service and to share them externally with attribution to RUIN. Commercial reuse, resale, incorporation into products, or use to train other AI models is not permitted without our prior written consent.

6. Acceptable use

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Acceptable Use Policy, which forms part of these Terms. We use a combination of automated moderation and review by verified historians to enforce that policy, and we may remove content, hide posts, or suspend accounts that breach it.

7. Generation credits

AI image generation consumes generation credits. Credits are non-transferable, have no monetary value, are not redeemable for cash, and may be modified, reset, or discontinued at our discretion. Where we offer paid credit top-ups, the price, quantity, and any expiry will be shown at the point of purchase.

8. Service availability

The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure against attack, or that AI Outputs will be historically accurate. Reconstructions are creative interpretations and should not be relied on as authoritative historical sources.

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, RUIN's total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you have paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) £50. We are not liable for indirect, consequential, special, or punitive damages, loss of profits, loss of data, or loss of goodwill. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for death, personal injury caused by negligence, or fraud, or any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law.

10. Copyright

The following materials are original works of authorship owned by James Reid and protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the Berne Convention, and applicable international copyright treaties:

• All source code, including the front-end application, server-side API routes, edge functions, middleware, and library modules (AR engine adapters, chroma-key processor, moderation pipeline, offline system, push notification infrastructure, and others).
• AI prompt templates and engineering — including the diorama generation prompts (era-appropriate material defaults, site-type classification, structural reconstruction logic), badge generation prompts (tier system, ornamentation progression, category-driven iconography), and banner generation prompts.
• The database schema, stored procedures, row-level security policies, and application architecture.
• The visual design of the Service — including the user interface, colour palette, layout, typography, iconography, animations, and the overall look and feel.
• All text, graphics, logos, icons, and images created by or for RUIN (excluding Your Content and third-party open-source components used under licence).

AI Outputs (as defined in Section 5) are computer-generated works within the meaning of section 9(3) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The person who made the arrangements necessary for the creation of those works is James Reid, trading as RUIN, and copyright in AI Outputs vests in RUIN accordingly.

11. Database rights

The compilation of historic sites, their geographic coordinates, time-period classifications, site-type metadata, and associated crowd-sourced AR sync corrections constitutes a database in which RUIN holds sui generis database right under the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997. You may not extract or re-utilise all or a substantial part of the contents of this database, whether in a single action or through repeated and systematic extraction, without our prior written consent.

12. Trademarks

"RUIN", the RUIN logo, the RUIN app icon, and the "ruinapp.com" domain name are trademarks and/or service marks of James Reid (whether or not registered). Other product and company names mentioned in the Service may be trademarks of their respective owners.

You must not, without our prior written consent:

• Use the RUIN name, logo, or any confusingly similar mark in connection with any product, service, or domain name.
• Register or attempt to register any trademark, domain name, or social-media handle that incorporates or is confusingly similar to any RUIN mark.
• Use any RUIN mark in any manner that is likely to cause confusion, to deceive, or to falsely imply sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation with RUIN.

Nothing in these Terms grants you any right, title, or interest in any RUIN trademark or service mark, whether by implication, estoppel, or otherwise.

13. Restrictions on use of the Service

You agree not to:

• Copy, reproduce, distribute, publicly display, or create derivative works of any part of the Service (including source code, prompts, and design) except as expressly permitted by these Terms or applicable law.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code or underlying algorithms of the Service, except to the extent that such restriction is expressly prohibited by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or other applicable law.
• Use automated scripts, bots, scrapers, or crawlers to access or collect data from the Service or its database.
• Remove, alter, or obscure any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices displayed in or on the Service.
• Use any AI Output, prompt template, or database content to train, fine-tune, or otherwise develop any machine-learning or artificial-intelligence model without our prior written consent.
• Frame, mirror, or embed any part of the Service on another website or application without prior written consent.

14. Termination

You may close your account at any time from the profile settings page. We may suspend or terminate your access immediately, with or without notice, if you breach these Terms, our Acceptable Use Policy, or applicable law. Sections 4, 5, 9, 10–13, 15 and 16 survive termination.

15. Copyright takedown

If you believe content on RUIN infringes your copyright or other intellectual property rights, send a written notice to support@ruinapp.com including:

• Your name, address, and contact details.
• A description of the work you say has been infringed and where it appears on RUIN (post URL or username).
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised.
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the rights-holder or authorised to act for them.
• Your physical or electronic signature.

We will review and, where appropriate, remove the content and notify the user who posted it. Repeat infringers will have their accounts terminated. Users who believe content was removed in error may submit a counter-notice to the same address.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified through the Service or by email at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use of the Service after that date constitutes acceptance.

17. Governing law

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or in connection with them are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except that you may bring proceedings in your country of residence if required by mandatory consumer protection law.

18. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email support@ruinapp.com.