Terms of service

1. The agreement

By creating an account you agree to these terms, the Privacy policy and the Acceptable use policy. If you create an account for an organization, you confirm you are allowed to bind it. “You” means the publisher; “subscribers” means the readers who buy your publication.

2. What the service is

EditionCove is software for running a paid printed newsletter: a subscription storefront, subscriber and address records, an entitlement engine, an issue builder and validator, and a workflow that places print-and-mail orders with third-party providers when you approve a mailing run, and reports on the results. We are a software provider. We are not the printer, the carrier or the payment processor, and we do not publish your newsletter; you do.

3. Your account

• You must be at least 18 and give accurate information. Keep your password secret and tell us at once if you suspect unauthorized access.
• You are responsible for everyone you invite to your organization and for what they do with the roles you give them.
• You must connect your own Stripe account to sell subscriptions. Stripe's terms apply to that account, and you are the merchant of record for every reader payment: refunds, chargebacks and applicable sales tax on subscriptions are yours.

4. Fees

• Software subscription. A monthly fee for the tier you choose, as shown on the pricing page when you sign up. It is charged in advance each month to the payment method on your account.
• Fulfillment charges. For each mailing run you approve, the provider's quoted print and postage cost plus our disclosed markup for your tier, as shown on the approval screen. You are charged when the provider accepts the run. We never charge for a run you did not approve.
• Transaction fee. If a tier carries a fee on reader revenue, it is shown on the pricing page and deducted through Stripe before funds reach your account. At the date of these terms no tier carries one.
• Taxes. Our fees exclude taxes. Where we are required to collect sales tax on them, it is added to your invoice.
• Changes. Pricing marked introductory may change. We will give you notice before any change applies to your account, and the change will not apply to a billing period you have already paid for.

5. Automatic renewal and cancellation

Your software subscription renews automatically each month until you cancel. You can cancel at any time from Settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid month and no further software fees are charged. Fulfillment charges for runs already approved remain payable. Fees already paid are not refunded except where the law requires or where we have failed to provide the service. After cancellation you have 90 days to export your data; see Your data & cancellation.

Subscribers' own subscriptions renew on the schedule and terms you set on your storefront. You are responsible for the auto-renewal and cancellation disclosures your storefront shows them, which we provide a template for and which must comply with the laws where your subscribers live, including California's Automatic Renewal Law.

6. Mailing runs and approvals

• A mailing run consists of the issue version you approve, the recipient list frozen at the cutoff, and the provider's quote. Approving a run is your instruction to place the order and your agreement to pay the quoted amount.
• Once the provider has accepted a run it cannot be changed or cancelled by us, unless the provider offers a cancellation window, which the approval screen states.
• Production times, mail dates and delivery times are estimates provided by the provider and USPS. We do not guarantee them. We will pass on to you any remedy the provider gives us for a run it fails to produce as ordered.
• You are responsible for the content of your issues meeting the provider's file requirements. Our validation reduces rejections but does not replace the provider's preflight. A run rejected by the provider is not charged.
• Returned, lost or damaged mail is handled through the provider's and USPS's processes. We record what we are told and help you act on it; we cannot compel delivery.

7. Your content and your subscribers

• You own your content. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive licence to store, display, render, transmit and print it solely to provide the service to you, including sending it to print providers. The licence ends when the content is deleted, except for copies in backups and records we must retain.
• You own your subscriber relationship. Subscriber records, addresses and the billing relationship on your Stripe account belong to you. We act as your service provider for subscriber data and will not use it for any other purpose.
• You may use subscriber information only to fulfil the subscription and communicate with your readers about your publication. You may not sell, rent or share subscriber lists or addresses.
• We will never claim rights to your work, place our branding on your newsletter without your consent, or use your content to train machine-learning models.

8. Acceptable use

You must comply with the Acceptable use policy. In short: your content must be lawful and mailable, you must have the right to publish it, and you may not use the platform to send unsolicited mail or to harm anyone. We may suspend or refuse a mailing run that we reasonably believe breaches it, and we will tell you why.

9. Our commitments

• We will provide the service with reasonable skill and care and keep your data secure as described in the Privacy policy.
• We will tell you plainly what works and what is still being built, and label estimates as estimates.
• We will disclose our markup on fulfillment on every quote.
• We will give you notice of material changes to the service or these terms before they take effect.

10. Disclaimers and limits

Except as expressly stated here, the service is provided “as is” and we disclaim implied warranties to the extent the law allows. We are not liable for the acts or omissions of print providers, carriers, payment processors or your subscribers, for indirect or consequential losses, or for lost profits. Our total liability to you for any claim arising from the service in any twelve-month period is limited to the software fees you paid us in that period. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

11. Suspension and termination

You may close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your account for material breach of these terms, for non-payment after notice, or if required by law, and will explain why unless we are legally prevented from doing so. On termination you keep the right to export your data for 90 days, and your subscribers' subscriptions continue on your own Stripe account unaffected by us.

12. Disputes and law

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and of the state in which EditionCove, Inc. is organized [state to be confirmed by counsel before launch], without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before bringing a claim, you agree to contact us and give us 30 days to resolve it. Nothing here prevents either party from seeking relief in small-claims court or an injunction to protect intellectual property or data.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. For material changes we will email the account owner and show a notice in the dashboard at least 30 days before the change takes effect. Continuing to use the service after that date means you accept the updated terms; if you do not, cancel before they take effect.

14. Contact

EditionCove, Inc.
support@editioncove.com