Terms of Use

1. Agreement to these terms

These Terms of Use cover two things operated by Jamnaytac LLC ("we," "us"):

• the website at instructos.org (the "Site"), which describes InstructOS; and
• the InstructOS application at app.instructos.org (the "App"), where you build and publish courses, together with the public course pages it produces.

We call them together the "Services." By using either one, or by creating an account, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

2. What InstructOS is

InstructOS is an initiative of eCollective. It is a model and set of tools for turning what you know into a course, a lesson, or a mini degree: you map a subject as a graph of mini topics, write the lessons, and publish the result.

The App is available on the web. It is new and still being built, and features may be added, changed, or removed. Descriptions of what is coming are forward-looking and are not a promise that anything will ship.

3. Your account

• Age. You must be at least 13 years old to create an account, or at least 16 if you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom. The App asks for your date of birth once, before an account is created, and keeps only the year.
• Accuracy. Give us a working email address and keep it current. We use it to confirm your account, to let you reset your password, and to reach you about the Services.
• Security. Keep your password to yourself. You are responsible for what happens under your account. Tell us at legal@jamnaytac.com if you think someone else has access to it.
• One person. An account is for one person. Do not share it or transfer it to someone else.

4. What you create stays yours

You keep ownership of everything you put into the App: your courses, lessons, mini topics, notes, uploaded files, and anything else you write or add ("Your Content"). We do not claim ownership of it, and we do not sell it.

So that the App can work, you give us permission to store, copy, process, and display Your Content, and to show it to the people you choose to show it to. That permission is limited to running and improving the Services. When you publish a course publicly, you are also asking us to make it available to anyone who has the link, including through search engines.

You can export a course as Markdown and a portable data file at any time and take it elsewhere. If you delete Your Content or your account, we stop displaying it and remove it, allowing a reasonable period for backups to age out.

5. What you publish

You are responsible for what you publish. By publishing, you confirm that you have the right to use and share everything in it, including any text, images, or links you did not create yourself, and that it does not infringe anyone's rights.

We may remove a published course, take down a public page, or suspend an account if we believe it breaks these terms or the law. Where we reasonably can, we will tell you why.

Copyright notices. If you believe something published with InstructOS infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent, Copyright Agent, Jamnaytac LLC, 24A Trolley Square, Suite 1752, Wilmington, DE 19806, by email at copyright@ecollective.org or by phone at 929-262-1869. Include where the material is, a description of the work, your contact details, and a statement of good-faith belief that the use is not authorized.

Repeat infringers. When we remove a course, lesson, or page you published because of a valid copyright notice, we record it against your account. In appropriate circumstances we end the accounts of people who repeatedly infringe copyright, and an account that is the subject of repeated valid notices is ended. You may appeal by writing to legal@jamnaytac.com.

6. What you may not do

Do not use the Services to:

• break the law, or teach someone how to hurt people;
• publish material you do not have the right to publish;
• impersonate someone else, or claim an endorsement or affiliation you do not have;
• harass, threaten, or target another person;
• upload malicious code, or try to break, overload, or gain unauthorized access to the Services;
• scrape or bulk-copy other people's courses, or resell access to the Services; or
• present a course as accredited, as academic credit, or as a recognized qualification.

7. The term "mini degree"

"Mini degree" is InstructOS's own term for a structured sequence of lessons. It is not an academic degree. Nothing on the Site, in the App, or published with InstructOS confers accreditation, academic credit, or a recognized credential, and none is implied.

8. Fees

The App is free to use today. There is nothing to buy, and nothing on the Services solicits contributions of any kind. If we introduce paid features, we will say so clearly and update these terms before charging anyone.

9. Our intellectual property

Apart from Your Content, the Services, including their text, design, graphics, and software, are owned by Jamnaytac LLC and protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. The InstructOS name and wordmark may not be used to imply endorsement or affiliation without written permission.

You are welcome to quote and share excerpts of the Site's written content for commentary, education, or discussion, with attribution and a link back to the source page.

10. Availability, suspension, and ending your account

We do not promise the Services will be uninterrupted or error-free, and we may change or discontinue any part of them. We will give reasonable notice of a change that removes something you depend on, where we can.

You may stop using the Services at any time; to close your account, write to legal@jamnaytac.com. We may suspend or end an account that breaks these terms. Export your courses before you go; sections 4, 9, 11, and 13 survive the end of your account.

11. Third-party sites

The Site links to www.ecollective.org, which is operated separately and has its own terms and privacy policy. Courses published with InstructOS may link to other sites, which we do not control and are not responsible for. Those sites' terms, not these, govern your use of them.

12. Disclaimer and limitation of liability

The Services are provided "as is." We make no warranties, express or implied, about their accuracy, completeness, availability, or fitness for a particular purpose. Courses published with InstructOS are written by the people who publish them; their content is not ours, and we do not check it. Nothing on the Services is legal, financial, medical, or professional advice.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Jamnaytac LLC and its members, managers, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost data or lost profits, arising from your use of the Services. Keep your own copy of anything you cannot afford to lose; the export is there for that.

13. Changes

We may update these terms from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when they were last changed. For a material change we will give notice in the App or by email. Continued use of the Services after a change means you accept the updated terms.

14. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict of law rules.

15. Contact

Questions about these terms can be sent to: