Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of These Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the website at bearinglabs.io (the "Site"), operated by Bearing Labs LLC ("Bearing Labs," "we," "us"). By accessing the Site or submitting a form on it, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.

2. Description of the Service

The Site is currently a pre-launch placeholder for Bearing Labs. It describes what we are building and offers two forms: one for sharing a "story of need" — a description of a real-world problem you would like solved — and one for signing up as a contributor. These Terms are provided for this pre-launch placeholder site and will be updated when the full service launches.

3. User Submissions and Assignment of Rights

Bearing Labs translates submitted stories of need into technical challenges that are developed in the open, and may also use, publish, and commercialize submissions and works derived from them. So that we can do this, the following applies to anything you submit through the Site:

• Do not submit confidential, proprietary, or trade-secret information. Treat everything you submit as non-confidential.
• You hereby assign and transfer to Bearing Labs LLC all right, title, and interest in and to your submission, including all intellectual property rights, worldwide. This means Bearing Labs owns your submission and may use, reproduce, adapt, anonymize, abstract, publish, distribute, incorporate into open-source challenges and related materials, and commercially exploit, sell, or license it, in whole or in part, in any form and for any purpose, without any obligation to you.
• To the extent this assignment is not effective or enforceable in any jurisdiction, you instead grant Bearing Labs a worldwide, exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, sublicensable, and transferable license to exercise all of the rights described above.
• You irrevocably waive, to the maximum extent permitted by law, any moral rights or similar rights you may have in your submission, such as rights of attribution and integrity. To the extent moral rights cannot be waived, you consent to any act or omission by Bearing Labs, its licensees, and its successors that would otherwise infringe those rights.
• You represent that you have the full right and authority to submit the content and to make this assignment, and that the submission does not infringe anyone else's rights.
• You acknowledge that you are not entitled to any compensation, royalty, credit, or attribution in connection with our use of your submission.
• We may edit, anonymize, or decline to use any submission at our discretion.

4. Open-Source Nature of Challenges and Solutions

Challenges derived from need stories, and the solutions developed around them, are intended to be released under open-source licenses and made publicly available. By submitting a need story, you acknowledge that your submission and the ideas contained in it may appear, in original, anonymized, or abstracted form, in public open-source materials, and that Bearing Labs may also use or commercialize submissions and derived works as described in Section 3, in each case without compensation or attribution to you.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Submit unlawful, defamatory, infringing, or malicious content;
• Attempt to interfere with, probe, or disrupt the Site or the services that process our forms;
• Use automated means to submit forms or circumvent reCAPTCHA protections;
• Impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation.

6. Intellectual Property

The Site's design, text, and graphics are owned by Bearing Labs LLC or its licensors. Except for materials we explicitly release under an open-source license, you may not reproduce Site content without our prior written permission.

7. Third-Party Services

The Site relies on third-party services:

• Formspark (formspark.io) processes form submissions and delivers them to us;
• Google reCAPTCHA protects the forms from abuse and is subject to Google's terms and privacy policy;
• GitHub Pages hosts the Site.

Your use of the Site involves these services, which operate under their own terms. We are not responsible for their availability or conduct.

8. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Site is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Site will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Bearing Labs LLC will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of data, profits, or goodwill, arising from your use of the Site. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Site will not exceed one hundred US dollars (US$100).

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Bearing Labs LLC and its members, officers, and agents from claims, damages, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of your submissions or your violation of these Terms.

11. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the laws of the state in which Bearing Labs LLC is organized, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

12. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time, including when the full service launches. The "Last updated" date above reflects the current version. Continued use of the Site after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

13. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email us at contact@bearinglabs.io.

Note

This document is a general template provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Bearing Labs LLC should have it reviewed by a licensed attorney before relying on it.