Terms of Service

byline.pub is an AT Protocol based directory for independent authors and books. It lets authors publish author profiles and book records to their own AT Protocol repositories, then helps readers discover those public records through a browsable directory.

byline.pub is not a retailer, publisher, agent, distributor, rights registry, or proof-of-ownership system.

To use authoring features, you must sign in with a compatible AT Protocol identity.

You are responsible for maintaining access to your own account, handle, PDS, OAuth provider, and related credentials. You are also responsible for activity carried out through your authenticated session.

You must be at least 13 years old to use byline.pub.

When you publish through byline.pub, the author profile or book record is written to your own AT Protocol repository.

You are responsible for the content you publish, including names, titles, descriptions, covers, links, genres, metadata, identifiers, and any rights or permissions needed to share that material.

Profiles, book records, covers, links, handles, DIDs, at:// URIs, and related metadata published through byline.pub are intended to be public.

You retain whatever rights you hold in the content you publish.

By using byline.pub, you grant byline.pub a limited, non-exclusive licence to read, index, cache, display, format, and link to your public AT Protocol records for the purpose of operating, maintaining, improving, and promoting the byline.pub directory and related discovery features.

This licence does not give byline.pub ownership of your books, covers, author identity, or underlying intellectual property.

byline.pub may index public author and book records so readers can find them.

The directory index is a discovery view. It is not the canonical record of ownership, publication, copyright, identity, or authorship.

The signed record in the author's AT Protocol repository is the source record. byline.pub may display, refresh, cache, remove, hide, or re-index records as needed to operate the service.

byline.pub may approve, pause, limit, remove, or refuse access to authoring, indexing, directory, or discovery features to operate the service, reduce spam, prevent abuse, handle technical problems, or respond to legal, safety, or rights concerns.

Validation is a byline.pub site operation. It is not written into AT Protocol records and should not be treated as a protocol-level verification, endorsement, certification, or guarantee.

byline.pub may remove or hide indexed content from the directory without deleting the underlying public record from the author's repository.

Do not use byline.pub to:

• Publish unlawful content
• Infringe copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights
• Impersonate another person, author, publisher, organization, or service
• Misrepresent your relationship to a book, author, publisher, or rights holder
• Upload or link to malware, phishing pages, scams, or deceptive material
• Harass, threaten, exploit, or abuse others
• Spam the service or manipulate directory listings
• Attempt unauthorized access to byline.pub, its systems, or other users' accounts
• Interfere with the availability, security, indexing, or normal operation of the service

Links to retailers, personal sites, newsletters, publisher pages, review pages, and related book resources are welcome when they are accurate, lawful, and relevant.

You are responsible for ensuring that the book information you publish is accurate and that you have the right to publish or reference it.

byline.pub may display information as provided by authors or gathered from public AT Protocol records. byline.pub does not guarantee that any author profile, book record, cover, link, description, publication status, retailer link, or metadata field is complete, accurate, current, or authorised by a publisher or rights holder.

Automated use may be permitted when it is non-disruptive, clearly identified where appropriate, and respectful of rate limits and service stability.

byline.pub may limit, throttle, block, or suspend automated activity that causes disruption, creates spam, scrapes aggressively, attempts to bypass protections, or otherwise harms the service.

Your PDS, handle provider, OAuth provider, Bluesky client, and other AT Protocol services are independent services with their own terms and policies.

byline.pub is not responsible for those services or for the availability, security, moderation, migration, or operation of your account, repository, handle, DID, PDS, or third-party AT Protocol tools.

Because byline.pub is built around AT Protocol records, your public records may be readable, indexed, cached, copied, or displayed by other compatible services.

byline.pub is designed around portable AT Protocol records. Where compatible tools and services support it, you may move your account or records using AT Protocol migration and repository tools.

byline.pub will not intentionally prevent compatible account or repository migration, but it cannot guarantee that all third-party tools, PDS hosts, clients, or indexers will behave the same way.

byline.pub is provided "as is" and "as available."

The service may change, break, lose indexed data, become unavailable, or be discontinued. Features may be added, changed, limited, or removed at any time.

You should keep your own copies of important book data, images, descriptions, links, and records. Do not rely on byline.pub as your only archive, catalogue, rights record, or publishing system.

byline.pub makes no warranties about the service, including warranties of availability, reliability, accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, security, or error-free operation.

Use byline.pub with the usual care you would apply to any beta publishing tool on the open web.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, byline.pub and its developer are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from your use of the service.

This includes, but is not limited to, loss of data, lost revenue, loss of visibility, incorrect metadata, broken links, service interruptions, security incidents, indexing errors, moderation decisions, or actions taken by third-party AT Protocol services.

Because byline.pub is provided as a free or low-cost discovery and publishing tool, you agree that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the total liability of byline.pub and its developer for any claim related to the service will be limited to the greater of:

• the amount you paid to use byline.pub in the 12 months before the claim; or
• CAD $50.

Nothing in these terms limits liability where doing so is not permitted by law.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limits on liability, so some of these limits may not apply to you.

You may stop using byline.pub at any time.

byline.pub may suspend, limit, or terminate access to authoring, indexing, or directory features if you violate these terms, misuse the service, create legal or safety concerns, or interfere with normal operation.

Removing access to byline.pub does not necessarily delete public records from your AT Protocol repository or from third-party services that may have already read, cached, indexed, or displayed them.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the applicable laws of Canada.

Any dispute related to byline.pub or these terms will be handled in the courts located in Ontario, Canada, unless applicable law requires otherwise.

These terms may be updated as byline.pub develops, adds features, or changes how it operates.

When the terms change, the "Last updated" date will be revised. Continued use of byline.pub after an update means you accept the updated terms.

Questions, concerns, rights issues, or abuse reports can be sent through the feedback form.