Starbase Terms of Service

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Last updated 29 July, 2021

Starbase® Terms of Service and End-User License Agreement

Thank you for purchasing Starbase®! By accessing Starbase in any form (including in "Early Access"), you agree to the following Terms of Service and End-User License Agreement below. We know that legal terms can sometimes feel like they're written by robots for robots, we've tried to write these in a bit more human-readable way, and have added some "developer notes" which clarify the intention better. The notes are meant to provide context, and legally speaking do not in any way restrict any of the actual paragraphs or rights of Frozenbyte.

We also want to provide this super quick summary:

1. Starbase is licensed, not sold
2. You're free to stream the game (incl. music)
3. We reserve the right to remove any content from the game at our sole discretion (incl. ships based on other companies' copyrights)
4. You agree to follow the Code of conduct and follow moderator instructions if given

Please check the actual terms for more information. We hope you enjoy the game!

- Joel, Vice President @ Frozenbyte

TERMS OF SERVICE AND END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
This is a legal agreement (”Agreement”) between you (hereninafter referred to as ”you”, ”your”, ”Licensee”) and Frozenbyte Oy (”Frozenbyte”, ”we”), the developer and creator of the computer and video game Starbase® (”Starbase”). Frozenbyte is a duly registered company under Finnish laws with the identification number FI17367343 and has its registered address at Krogiuksentie 17, 00340 Helsinki, Finland.

By installing Starbase, you must agree and abide by the Steam® Subscriber Agreement (”SSA”) found in the Steam Client and at https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

In addition, by playing Starbase, you agree to the terms and conditions herein and all terms incorporated by reference, including the Code of conduct. Do not play Starbase if you do not agree to all of these terms.

LATEST VERSION ONLINE AND UPDATING TERMS
The terms of this Agreement may be modified from time to time by Frozenbyte. Changes become effective immediately upon posting them online. The latest version of these terms is found online at https://wiki.starbasegame.com/index.php/Starbase_Terms_of_Service . You agree that this online version shall at all times be the binding Agreement between you and Frozenbyte. Any particular term that is deemed not valid or enforceable will not affect any other terms. Furthermore, if we don't take action on your failure to abide by these terms, that is not a waiver of our rights; we retain the right to take action in the future.

For any major changes that could reasonably be judged to affect your ability or desire to play Starbase, Frozenbyte will post the changed Agreement online and provide an excerpt of the changed sections, provide a date when the new changes come into force, and provide information to all players of Starbase through the ingame News section, community posts and other methods, giving reasonable advance notice, and enable you to terminate the Agreement and stop playing Starbase if you do not agree to the updated Agreement.

LICENSE GRANT
Starbase is licensed to you, not sold. Frozenbyte hereby grants you a limited, revocable, non-transferable, non-exclusive license to access and play Starbase for your personal, non-commercial use strictly in accordance with the terms and condititions of this Agreement (”License”). Frozenbyte reserves all rights in and to Starbase that are not expressly granted to you under this Agreement. Ownership of Starbase and all intellectual property rights in and to Starbase remain the property of Frozenbyte.

You may also create and make publicly available videos or streams, such as a reviews, previews, ”Let’s Plays”, on third party services and enable monetization. You may also use the music and soundtrack of Starbase in your videos or streams, as long as the use is directly related to the game. Using any part of Starbase separately not in connection with the game is not allowed.

ACCOUNT
Starbase uses your Steam account. We may change this later and require a separate registration.

You may use Starbase with multiple accounts (if each account has a legal license) unless the purpose of multiple accounts is to circumvent or evade e.g. temporary bans or other disciplinary actions or restrictions. Separately allowed is the creation and use of another account if your main account has been sent to Saltberia, the ingame prison (once that feature has been implemented).

By creating a character you agree that the character name and other data, including ships and possessions and faction/company membership, associated with that character is not personally identifiable information. If you request your personal data to be removed, it will not extend to your ingame character name or any other ingame data. We do not store any personally identifiable information in the game data.

EPILEPSY WARNING
Starbase, especially user-designed disco ships/stations, may contain bright, flashing lights or other imagery that may cause discomfort, or even trigger seizures for people who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy or other photo sensitivities. We suggest being extra careful when playing the game and especially when pressing any buttons not clearly labeled, as they may trigger e.g. warning lights or similar.

UPDATES AND MODIFICATIONS
Frozenbyte may update Starbase from time to time at its sole discretion. Frozenbyte is not obligated to provide any such updates to you or anyone else.

Frozenbyte reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, Starbase or any service to which it connects, including online services, with or without notice and without liability to you. In the event of a permanent discontinuation of Starbase or its online services, Frozenbyte will provide a written notice within the game for at least 6 months prior to any discontinuation, and where reasonably possible, assist players in setting up alternative ways to continue playing Starbase.

Developer note: Due to Starbase’s hybrid model of networking and thus lower server costs than traditional massively multiplayer online games, a permanent discontinuation is unlikely. For more information, please reach out to Frozenbyte or find more information at the official Starbase website and Starbase forums.

REVERSE ENGINEERING, CHEATING, HACKING
Any kind of cheating, hacking or reverse engineering is strictly prohibited without explicit and written developer consent.

Ruining the game experience for others via means of cheating or hacking will result in an immediate ban with no warnings.

RELATED USE
In addition to Starbase, you may be involved in the Starbase community.

Frozenbyte retains the right to revoke your license to Starbase based on your actions on the official forums or official Discord server, or for other behavior that negatively impacts Starbase or its community, at the sole discretion of Frozenbyte. If Frozenbyte exercises this right and you feel this has been a mistake, please get in touch to discuss. In case a solution is not reached, Frozenbyte may deny granting you a renewed license. In addition, Frozenbyte may, at its sole discretion, refund you the price you paid for Starbase.

RELATED TOOLS
Starbase has no API as of this moment. An API may be developed in the far future (you may check the Roadmap if the API appears at some point).

We may allow certain tools by special permission. All of these are listed on the Starbase public Wiki at https://wiki.starbasegame.com/index.php/General_rules#Special_permissions

REAL MONEY TRADING
Real money trading is strictly prohibited. You are not allowed to use Starbase or any part of it in any transaction involving real money.

Developer note: Our main purpose is to prevent 3rd party websites selling ingame stuff (like ships) for real world money. We may revise this later to allow some sort of ship design commission services to take place. Some background information is provided in a forum post at https://forum.starbasegame.com/threads/question-regarding-rmt.1974/

USER CREATED CONTENT
Everything in Starbase is and remains the property of Frozenbyte.

During the course of playing Starbase, you may create content (”User-Created Content”, ”UCC”). You may use this content as part of playing Starbase in the ways that the game allows, but you do not own the content. Frozenbyte may use and exploit all user created content in any and all ways. For example, Frozenbyte may take screenshots or videos of the content and post these on the internet on their own or as part of a larger work such as a video feature. Your character, ships, ingame likeness, ingame name, and other details will be visible to other players and may be used by other players and Frozenbyte in screenshots, videos, and other material released publicly by Frozenbyte, players, and other 3rd parties.

If Steam Workshop support is enabled for Starbase, you may sell or license content that you have created, provided that you agree to the terms therein.

Frozenbyte is not liable or responsible for material created by other users. In addition, users may create content that contains website links (URLs, QR codes). We advise players not to follow those links, but ignoring this warning is completely up to you and at your own risk.

INFRINGEMENT
You agree not to use any third party's copyrighted intellectual property without authorization. You are responsible for any legal issues related to copyright infringement arising from any User-Created Content that you have created or have been involved in creating or otherwise assisted in.

FOR COPYRIGHT OWNERS
Frozenbyte will respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement. For any third party claims related to copyright claims based on intellectual property wrongly used in Starbase by users and content users have created, please contact Frozenbyte.

TERM AND TERMINATION
This Agreement remains in effect until terminated by you or Frozenbyte.

Frozenbyte may, at its sole discretion, at any time and for any or no reason, suspend or terminate this Agreement with or without prior notice. You are entitled to a refund if the termination is unwarranted.

Upon termination of this Agreement, you shall cease all use of Starbase and uninstall all copies of the game.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
FROZENBYTE PROVIDES STARBASE AND ALL RELATED SERVICES "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE". OTHER THAN AS EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT, FROZENBYTE AND ITS AFFILIATES AND DISTRIBUTORS DO NOT MAKE ANY SPECIFIC PROMISES ABOUT STARBASE OR RELATED SERVICES. FOR EXAMPLE, FROZENBYTE MAKES NO COMMITMENTS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF STARBASE CONTENT, FUNCTIONALITY, OR RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, OR ABILITY TO MEET YOUR NEEDS OR DESIRES. FURTHERMORE, FROZENBYTE DOES NOT GUARANTEE THAT ACCESS TO OR USE OF STARBASE WILL BE CONTINUOUS, UNINTERRUPTED, OR ERROR-FREE. SOME JURISDICTIONS PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN WARRANTIES, LIKE THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, FROZENBYTE EXCLUDES ALL WARRANTIES.

LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY
WHEN PERMITTED BY LAW, FROZENBYTE AND ITS AFFILIATES AND DISTRIBUTORS WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LOST PROFITS, REVENUES, OR DATA, FINANCIAL LOSSES, OR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF FROZENBYTE AND ITS AFFILIATES AND DISTRIBUTORS FOR ANY CLAIMS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING FOR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES, IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO ACCESS STARBASE. IN ALL CASES, FROZENBYTE AND ITS AFFILIATES AND DISTRIBUTORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE THAT IS NOT REASONABLY FORESEEABLE.

DISPUTES AND GOVERNING LAW
The laws of Finland, excluding its choice of law rules, will apply to any disputes arising out of or relating to this Agreement or Starbase. All claims arising out of or relating to Starbase must be litigated exclusively in the District Court of Helsinki, Finland, and you and Frozenbyte consent to personal jurisdiction in that court.

Prior to any court action, you and Frozenbyte agree to try to resolve any and all issues via mutual negotiation by email or other form of communication. Furthermore, as stated in Limitations of Liability, Frozenbyte's maximum liability to you is the price you paid for access to Starbase, i.e. a refund of the price. In no event shall any dispute be consolidated with any other arbitration or other proceeding, and you waive any right you may have to file a class action or other collective actions against Frozenbyte.

MISCELLANEOUS
If any particular term in this Agreement is not enforceable, it will not affect any other terms.

If you do not comply with these terms, and Frozenbyte does not take action immediately, this doesn’t mean Frozenbyte is giving up any rights that Frozenbyte may have (such as taking action in the future).

PRIVACY POLICY
We will keep all actions related to moderation (including emails and chat logs, where available) for as long as necessary (up to the lifetime of Starbase). You may file a request for deletion of this data by sending an email to the Support team.

During the course of playing Starbase, you may submit your computer's hardware information as part of the crash reporting tool. This will transmit certain information and may include some personally identifiable data such as the computer name and installation folder of Starbase. We will only use this data for the purposes of technical analysis of fixing bugs and improving the quality of the game, and we will not store it any longer than necessary for the technical purposes.

You may also submit feedback directly via the game or via the community platforms such as Discord, and by doing so you grant Frozenbyte full rights to that feedback, or at the very least an irrevocable, worldwide license free of charge to use those ideas and feedback as-is or in modified form in Starbase and in other games.

ABILITY TO PLAY AND CODE OF CONDUCT
Your ability to play Starbase is dependent on you following the rules and guidelines set out in the Code of conduct, and you agree to the full rules of the then-current Code of Conduct at any given time. You also agree to abide by moderator instructions. Failure to follow the rules, guidelines, or moderator instructions is grounds for moderation action, including temporary and permanent ban. We may take moderation action against you for exploits, griefing, or otherwise unwanted behavior, and we may take this action retroactively in our discretion.

SUPPORT
We hope you have a good time playing Starbase! We provide support online via email at our Support email address listed at http://www.frozenbyte.com/contact/ . You may also join our Discord server at https://discordapp.com/invite/starbase and chat with one of our Community Managers. We usually try to reply to emails within 24 hours, and on Discord we are online usually during the Finnish business hours (approx. 05:00-13:00 UTC)

CONTACT
You may contact Frozenbyte at the Support email listed at http://www.frozenbyte.com/contact/ for any issues or questions related to Starbase.