OurSpace Terms of Service

Effective: September 18, 2026

These terms are a contract between you and OurSpace LLC. They are written in plain language on purpose. The plain language is the contract; there is no other version.

1. Who we are, and what this covers

OurSpace is provided by OurSpace LLC, a limited liability company formed in New Mexico, United States ("OurSpace", "we", "us"). Postal address for legal notices: OurSpace LLC, c/o Registered Agents Inc., 1209 Mountain Road Pl NE, Ste R, Albuquerque, NM 87110, USA. Email: contact@joinourspace.org.

These terms cover the OurSpace apps when connected to the server we run, and this website. They do not cover servers run by other people (see section 10), and they do not license the software itself (also section 10). Our Privacy Policy explains what we do with your data and is part of these terms.

By creating an account or using OurSpace, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, don't use OurSpace.

2. Who can use OurSpace

You must be 18 or older. OurSpace is not for children or teenagers, and we delete accounts we learn belong to anyone under 18.

One person, one account, unless we say otherwise. Keep your password and your recovery code to yourself; you are responsible for what happens on your account. If you think someone else has access to it, change your password and tell us.

You may use OurSpace only where it is legal for you to do so, and you may not use it if you are barred from using it under applicable law.

3. The service, and its beta status

OurSpace is free. There are no purchases, subscriptions, or in-app payments, and therefore nothing to refund. If that ever changes, we will update these terms before charging anyone anything.

OurSpace is in early beta, built and run by one person. Things will break. Features will change, appear, and occasionally disappear. We may need to take the service down for maintenance, sometimes without warning. We will try to be sensible about it, but we do not promise that OurSpace will be available, uninterrupted, or error-free.

You are responsible for keeping your app up to date. Old versions may stop working with the server, particularly when we change how encryption or accounts work.

4. Your content

It's yours. You own what you post: text, photos, videos, audio, comments, profile content, and messages.

What you let us do with it. So that we can run the service, you give OurSpace a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, transcode, display, and distribute your content, only as needed to provide OurSpace to you and to the people you share with (for example, to show your post to your friends, or to hold the encrypted ciphertext of your messages until they are delivered). We do not use your content for advertising, for training anything, or for any purpose beyond running the service. This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except that copies may persist for a short time in backups and logs, and content you already sent to other people (a message on their device, a post they reposted) stays with them.

You must have the right to post it. Only upload content you created or have permission to use. This matters most for music: a profile song must be your own recording or one you are licensed to share publicly. Copyrighted commercial music you do not have rights to is not allowed and will be removed on notice.

Encrypted messages. We cannot see the contents of private messages, so we cannot review them. That does not make them a lawful place for unlawful things; the rules in section 5 apply to messages as much as to posts, and we act on credible reports.

5. Rules

Don't use OurSpace to:

  • break the law, or help anyone else break it;
  • post or share sexual content involving minors, in any form. We have zero tolerance for this, we remove it, we terminate the account, and we report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as United States law requires;
  • harass, threaten, stalk, or bully anyone, or encourage violence or self-harm;
  • post other people's private information without their permission;
  • impersonate a person or organization, or misrepresent who you are;
  • infringe anyone's copyright, trademark, or other rights (see section 7);
  • send spam, scams, or unsolicited commercial messages;
  • upload malware, or probe, scan, overload, or interfere with the service, other users' devices, or the encryption;
  • scrape or bulk-collect other people's content or data;
  • get around a block, a suspension, or an age or safety measure.

Be decent. That covers most of it.

6. Reports, moderation, and enforcement

You can block anyone, and you can report content or accounts from inside the app. We review reports ourselves; there is no automated moderation and no outsourced review team. Because private messages are encrypted, a report about a message is judged on what the reporter shows us.

If you break these terms, we may remove content, limit features, suspend your account, or delete it, depending on how serious it is. We will tell you what we did and why unless the law prevents it or telling you would put someone at risk. If you think we got it wrong, email us; a human will look again.

We may also remove content or suspend accounts when the law requires it, or to protect the service and its users.

We respect copyright and expect you to. If you believe content on OurSpace infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent with the information the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires: your contact details; the copyrighted work; the infringing content and where it is; a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized; a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and you are authorized to act for the owner; and your physical or electronic signature.

Designated agent: OurSpace LLC, c/o Registered Agents Inc., 1209 Mountain Road Pl NE, Ste R, Albuquerque, NM 87110, USA · copyright@joinourspace.org. Email is fastest.

If your content is removed after a notice and you believe that was a mistake, you may send a counter-notice to the same agent with the information the DMCA requires. We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.

8. Democracy Dev

Democracy Dev lets members propose features and vote on what gets built next. Proposals and votes are suggestions, not orders: we decide what is feasible, safe, and affordable, and we may decline, change, delay, or roll back anything, including a winning proposal. You are not compensated for proposals, and by submitting one you let us build it (or something like it) without owing you anything for the idea.

9. Encryption, keys, and backups

Private messages are end-to-end encrypted with the Signal protocol. Your private keys and your recovery code live only on your devices. We cannot read your messages, and we cannot recover them, your backups, or your account's message history if you lose your devices and your recovery code. Keep the recovery code somewhere safe. Losing it is losing your backups; that is by design, and it is not something we can undo.

Encryption protects the contents of messages. It does not hide who you talk to or when from us, and it does not protect a message once it is on someone else's device. Screenshots exist.

10. Open source, self-hosting, and trademarks

The OurSpace software is (or, before its public release, will be) published under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3. That license, not these terms, governs your use of the code. These terms govern only the hosted service at joinourspace.org and the apps when connected to it.

Anyone may run their own OurSpace server. A server run by someone else is that person's service, under their rules and their privacy practices; we are not responsible for it, and these terms do not apply to it.

The OurSpace name and logo are trademarks of OurSpace LLC. The AGPL license covers the code, not the name: you may not present a modified or self-hosted server as the official OurSpace service, and you may not use the name or logo in a way that suggests we endorse or run something we don't.

11. Third-party services and links

OurSpace is distributed through Apple's App Store and TestFlight and, on Android, through Google's distribution services and a direct download from our server. Those platforms have their own terms. Links that people post lead to sites we do not control; we are not responsible for what is on them.

12. Ending things

You can leave whenever you like: delete your account in the app under Settings, or follow the steps at joinourspace.org/account/delete. Deletion is permanent.

We can suspend or terminate your account for breaking these terms, for a legal requirement, or if we shut the service down. If we shut OurSpace down entirely, we will give as much notice as we reasonably can, and the software will remain available for self-hosting under its license.

Sections 4 (the parts about content already shared), 7, 10, 13, 14, 15, and 16 survive termination.

13. No warranties

OurSpace is provided "as is" and "as available". It is beta software from one person. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not promise that OurSpace will be secure, reliable, available, or free of errors, or that content will be preserved. Back up anything you cannot afford to lose.

14. Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, OurSpace LLC, and the person who runs it, will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost data, lost profits, or lost goodwill, arising out of or relating to OurSpace or these terms, however caused. Our total liability for any claim relating to OurSpace is limited to one hundred US dollars (US $100).

Some places do not allow some of these limits. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability that cannot legally be limited or excluded, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud, and nothing takes away rights you have as a consumer under your local law that cannot be waived by contract.

15. Your responsibility for your content

If someone brings a claim against us because of content you posted or because you broke these terms or the law, you agree to cover the reasonable costs and damages we incur as a result, to the extent your local law allows that agreement.

16. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Mexico, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, except where your local consumer law says otherwise and cannot be contracted out of.

If you have a problem, email us first at contact@joinourspace.org. Most problems are fixed in a conversation. If a dispute cannot be resolved that way, it will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, and you and we consent to those courts, except that if you are a consumer resident in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or another place whose law gives you the right to sue at home, you keep that right.

17. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change is material, we will tell you in the app at least 14 days before it takes effect, unless the change is required by law or is needed to address a safety or security problem, in which case it may take effect sooner. Continuing to use OurSpace after a change takes effect means you accept it; if you don't accept it, delete your account before then.

18. The usual last things

These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and OurSpace LLC about OurSpace. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce something right away, we haven't given it up. You may not transfer your account or these terms to someone else; we may transfer them to a successor that takes over OurSpace, and we will tell you if that happens. "Including" means "including but not limited to".

Contact

contact@joinourspace.org
OurSpace LLC, c/o Registered Agents Inc., 1209 Mountain Road Pl NE, Ste R, Albuquerque, NM 87110, USA