Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of terms

By accessing or using Marginalia Club (“the platform”, “we”, “us”), you agree to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, please do not use the platform. We may update these terms from time to time; continued use constitutes acceptance.

2. Who can use Marginalia Club

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use the platform in any capacity. We do not offer a supervised or parental-consent pathway for younger users — if you are under 18, please do not register. By registering, you confirm that you are 18 or older. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will close it.

3. Account responsibilities

You are responsible for your account. This means:

• Providing accurate information when you register and keeping it up to date.
• Keeping your password and credentials secure. We are not liable for any loss arising from unauthorised access to your account.
• Maintaining one account per person. Duplicate accounts may be removed.
• All activity under your account is your responsibility.

4. Your content and copyright

You retain full copyright to everything you write and publish on Marginalia Club. We believe your words belong to you — always.

By publishing on the platform, you grant Marginalia Club a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to display, store, and distribute your content on the platform and in promotional contexts (such as social media excerpts or editorial features). This licence ends when you delete your content or close your account.

You warrant that the content you publish is original, that you own the rights to it, and that it does not infringe any third-party copyright, trademark, or other rights.

5. Our intellectual property

Aside from the writing published by our users, everything else that makes up Marginalia Club — the name, logo, visual design, typography system, source code, and the selection and arrangement of content on the platform — belongs to us or our licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other applicable laws.

You may not copy, reproduce, scrape, reverse-engineer, or create derivative products from the platform itself, or use our name or logo to imply endorsement, without our prior written permission. This does not restrict your rights over your own published writing under §4, or ordinary personal use like screenshots for sharing a story you enjoyed.

6. Copyright complaints

We host a mix of user-submitted writing and public-domain classics sourced from services such as Project Gutenberg and Wikisource. If you believe content on Marginalia Club infringes your copyright, send a written notice to legal@marginaliaclub.in identifying: (a) the copyrighted work you claim is infringed, (b) the specific URL of the content on our platform, (c) your contact information, and (d) a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is unauthorised.

We will investigate and, where the claim is well-founded, remove or restrict access to the content and notify the author. We may also remove content on our own initiative where we have reason to believe it infringes another party’s rights.

7. Prohibited content

The following are not permitted on Marginalia Club:

• AI-generated content passed off as human-written. Publishing text generated by an AI model under your name, without disclosure, is dishonest and unfair to the community. Disclosed AI-assisted work may be permitted at editorial discretion.
• Plagiarism. Presenting someone else’s writing as your own.
• Hate speech. Content that attacks individuals or groups based on religion, caste, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, or other protected characteristics.
• Harassment. Targeting individuals with abusive, threatening, or demeaning messages or stories.
• Doxxing. Sharing private personal information about another person without their consent.
• Explicit sexual content. Not permitted on the platform.
• Spam. Mass posting, repetitive content, or promotional content disguised as stories.
• Impersonation. Pretending to be another writer, public figure, or our team.

8. Moderation

We reserve the right to review, remove, or restrict any content that violates these terms or our Community Guidelines. Depending on the severity and frequency of violations, we may issue a warning, remove specific content, temporarily suspend an account, or permanently ban an account. We try to be fair and proportionate, and decisions may be appealed by emailing support@marginaliaclub.in within 14 days.

9. Subscriptions and payments

Marginalia Club is currently free to use, with no paid tier available at this time. We do not currently process any payments on the platform.

If we introduce a paid membership or other paid feature in the future, purchases will be made via Apple in-app purchase (iOS), Google Play in-app purchase (Android), or a web payment provider, as applicable, subject to the relevant platform’s terms and billing policies. We will update this section and our Refund Policy before any paid feature launches, and charges will always be clearly disclosed before purchase.

10. Termination

You may delete your account at any time from your account settings. Some anonymised or aggregated data may be retained as described in our Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or terminate your account for violating these terms or our Community Guidelines, or if required by law. Where practical, we will give notice and a reason. We may also discontinue the platform, or features of it, at any time; where reasonably possible we will give advance notice so you can export or save your work.

11. Disclaimers

Marginalia Club is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We do not guarantee uninterrupted access or that the platform will be error-free.

We are not responsible for user-generated content published on the platform. Opinions, stories, and other content posted by users are those of the individual authors and do not represent the views of Marginalia Club.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Marginalia Club and its team will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the platform, including loss of data, content, or goodwill. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be excluded under Indian law.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Marginalia Club harmless from any claim, loss, or demand — including reasonable legal fees — made by a third party arising from your content, your use of the platform, or your violation of these terms.

14. Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the laws of India. Any disputes arising under these terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Mumbai, Maharashtra.

15. Contact

For questions about these terms, write to us at legal@marginaliaclub.in.