Terms of Service

ARCA is a human-judged ranking of concepts: you vote between pairs, audition new submissions, and the catalogue re-orders in real time. Stratum Zero, Inc. ("we") operates the service. These terms apply to anyone using it.

You can use ARCA as a guest. If you sign in with email, you agree to provide a working address and to keep your account in your sole control. We do not store passwords (magic-link only), so account security depends on your email account's security.

You must be at least 13 years old (16 in the EU) to use ARCA. Some surfaces require age 18+ confirmation; those are gated explicitly.

When you submit a concept (image + title), you keep the copyright. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty- free licence to host, display, and re-format the content solely to operate ARCA (renders in the swipe surface, the World Top, share previews, and the regional country tops). This licence ends when the content is removed.

You represent that:

• You own the content or have permission from its owner to upload it.
• The content does not violate anyone else's rights (copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, defamation).
• The content does not depict an identifiable person without their consent — see "people on cards" below.

ARCA's primary purpose is to rank concepts, not to publish unflattering images of identifiable real people. If a submission depicts a real person, you must have their consent. People depicted on a card can request its removal via abuse@arca.app and we will action within 7 days (24 hours for clearly harmful content per our content moderation runbook).

You may not use ARCA to:

• Upload illegal content, CSAM (child sexual abuse material), incitement to violence, terrorist propaganda, or material that violates applicable export-control or sanctions law.
• Brigade the ranking through coordinated voting from multiple accounts you control, or use bots to inflate concepts you favour. We detect this and remove offending votes; repeat offenders lose account access.
• Scrape the API in ways that violate our published rate limits, or attempt to circumvent anti-abuse measures.
• Use the service to harass, threaten, or impersonate another person.
• Reverse-engineer the ranking algorithm to game it for paid placement (which we don't sell anyway — see ADR-0010 Phase 2).

We may remove any submission that violates these terms or applicable law. We will notify the submitter where possible and surface a brief reason. For DMCA / copyright takedowns address dmca@arca.app with the standard takedown notice elements.

ARCA does not sell rank position. Concepts climb because humans vote for them, not because someone paid us to. If we ever introduce a paid surface (e.g. brand-sponsored ARCA Events as designed in our roadmap), it will be on a visually-distinct surface, never inside the World Top ranking itself.

We aim for high uptime but do not guarantee it. The service is provided "as is" without warranties. Our liability for any claim arising out of ARCA is limited to the amount you have paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim (which, for free-tier users, is zero). Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable consumer-protection law.

You may close your account any time via the account menu → Delete account. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms, with notice where practicable. Surviving sections after termination: content licence for material you posted (until the content is removed), audit-log retention, disclaimers, and limitations of liability.

We may update these terms over time. Material changes will be announced on the ARCA homepage at least 30 days before taking effect, with the prior version archived. Continued use after the notice period constitutes acceptance.

These terms are governed by the law of the jurisdiction where Stratum Zero, Inc. is registered, without reference to conflict-of-laws rules. If you are a consumer in the EU / UK, you keep the protections of your local law where they give you more rights than these terms. Disputes go to the courts of the same jurisdiction unless local consumer law grants you a closer forum.

General: hello@arca.app. Legal: legal@arca.app. Abuse / takedowns: abuse@arca.app.