Terms of Use

1. Agreement and additional policies

By installing, accessing, or using ZephRead, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Services. The Privacy Policy, Paid Membership Terms, Account Deletion page, and any terms shown by Microsoft Store for a purchase also apply to their respective subjects.

If a Store term conflicts with these Terms on billing, cancellation, refund, tax, or platform licensing, the Store term controls that Store transaction to the extent required by the platform or applicable law.

2. Operator and contact

ZephRead is an independently operated software project. References to “ZephRead,” “we,” “us,” or “our” mean the operator of the ZephRead software and services. Questions or legal notices may be sent to contact@zephread.com.

3. Eligibility

The local reader can be used without an account. You must be at least 18 years old to create a ZephRead account, use cloud services, or obtain paid membership. Local law may require a parent or guardian to approve a younger person’s local software use.

You may use ZephRead only where it is lawful and only if you are not barred from receiving the Services under applicable law or Store rules. The app and membership may not be available in every country or Store market.

4. What ZephRead provides

ZephRead provides a local-first reader for supported file formats, optional account and private cloud-sync functions, a website, and Store-managed paid membership. Local reading is designed to continue without an account or network connection. Cloud, authentication, entitlement verification, support, and Store functions require third-party networks and services.

Feature descriptions, screenshots, supported formats, quotas, and release status may change as the Services evolve. A feature is included only when it is actually made available in your version and market.

5. License to use the software

Subject to these Terms and applicable Store rules, ZephRead grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to install and use an official copy of the app for lawful personal or internal purposes. You may not sell, rent, sublicense, repackage, or provide the app as a hosted service unless we give written permission.

Third-party and open-source components are licensed under their own notices. Those licenses control the components they cover and may grant rights beyond these Terms. No ownership in ZephRead branding, proprietary code, website content, or documentation is transferred to you.

6. Your account and security

You must provide accurate account information, keep credentials secure, and promptly notify contact@zephread.com of suspected unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity performed through your account unless applicable law provides otherwise.

Do not share access tokens, security challenges, Store verification credentials, or reviewer accounts. We may require reauthentication, a human-verification challenge, or another proportionate check before sensitive actions such as account deletion or identity changes.

7. Your files and content

You retain ownership of your files, library metadata, highlights, notes, covers, and other content. You represent that you have the rights and permissions needed to open, copy, annotate, upload, and synchronize that content and that doing so does not violate law, contract, privacy, or intellectual-property rights.

When you select content for cloud sync, you grant ZephRead a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide license to host, copy, transmit, format, and process it solely as needed to provide, secure, troubleshoot, and recover the sync service. This license lasts only while the content is stored or while a limited retention or recovery obligation applies, and it may be passed to service providers only for those purposes. It does not permit advertising, sale of your content, or generative-AI training.

8. Local-first use, sync, and backups

Cloud sync is optional and remains off until you enable it. Only files you select are uploaded. Cloud content is private to your account and v1 has no public-sharing feature, but cloud content is not end-to-end encrypted.

Sync can be delayed, interrupted, conflicted, or unavailable. ZephRead applies documented conflict and deletion rules, but it is not an archival or disaster-recovery service. Keep independent copies of important source files, highlights, and notes. Expiry, account deletion, or a cloud failure does not instruct ZephRead to delete original local files.

9. Free service, quotas, and devices

All local reading features remain free and require no account. A signed-in Free account may sync one cloud file up to 20 MB. Paid membership provides up to 5 GB of cloud storage, files up to 200 MB, and up to five devices.

Quotas, file eligibility, supported formats, transfer limits, and device rules are enforced by the service. We may apply reasonable rate, concurrency, storage, and abuse-prevention limits. Attempts to evade limits may result in delayed transfers, rejected uploads, or restricted cloud access.

10. Paid membership and participating products

Paid membership is an account-level entitlement. It applies only to products expressly listed as participating at the relevant time. Zeph Read for Windows is the only current release participant. No other existing or future product is included unless ZephRead expressly adds it.

A Store purchase does not grant benefits until it is verified by ZephRead and bound to the signed-in account. Multiple subscriptions do not combine or extend time, capacity, device count, or other benefits; any one valid source may keep membership active.

11. Billing, renewal, cancellation, and refunds

Microsoft Store sells the current monthly and annual subscriptions. The United States reference prices are US$1.99 per month and US$14.99 per year. The Store-local price, currency, tax, billing period, and offer shown before purchase control. Neither current Windows plan includes a trial.

Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled through Microsoft. To avoid the next charge, cancel before the Store’s renewal deadline. Cancellation normally stops future renewal and leaves benefits active until the paid period ends. Deleting the ZephRead account or app does not cancel the Store subscription. Duplicate subscriptions must be cancelled separately.

Microsoft processes payments and refund requests. Refund eligibility is determined by Microsoft Store terms and applicable law. Future price changes apply through the Store’s notice and renewal process and do not remove non-waivable cancellation or refund rights.

12. Expiry, downgrade, and deletion

When membership expires, uploads may be restricted and Free limits apply. Cloud data above Free limits receives a 30-day retention period. Where practical, you may choose the file retained under the Free allowance; if no choice is made, ZephRead may retain the most recently read eligible file. Local copies are not remotely deleted because membership expires.

A cloud-file deletion normally enters a 7-day recycle period. An accepted account-deletion request has an exact 7-day recovery period before finalization. The Account Deletion page explains the process, limited retained evidence, and how to cancel during the recovery window.

13. Acceptable use

You must not use the Services to:

• break the law, infringe intellectual property, privacy, publicity, contract, or other rights, or upload content you are not authorized to use;
• distribute malware, harmful code, unlawful content, spam, or material intended to compromise another person or system;
• circumvent authentication, quotas, rate limits, geographic or content protections, DRM, or another technical access control;
• probe, scrape, overload, reverse engineer where lawfully restricted, disrupt, or gain unauthorized access to the Services or another user’s data;
• impersonate another person, misrepresent affiliation, commit payment or subscription fraud, resell access, or automate abusive requests; or
• use the Services to create public sharing or mass distribution that the product does not provide.

14. Copyright and protected content

ZephRead does not provide or authorize DRM-circumvention behavior. A file’s ability to open does not grant you rights in it. Rights in books, documents, covers, and other third-party material remain with their owners.

If you believe material controlled by ZephRead infringes your rights, email contact@zephread.com with enough information to identify the work, the allegedly infringing material, your contact details, your good-faith statement, and any declaration required by applicable law. Do not include unrelated private documents.

15. ZephRead intellectual property and feedback

ZephRead names, logos, designs, proprietary software, documentation, and website content are protected by intellectual-property law. Except for the software license and separate open-source licenses, no right is granted to copy, publish, sell, create misleading branding, or use ZephRead marks as if you were affiliated with us.

If you voluntarily submit feedback, you allow us to use it without payment or confidentiality obligation, provided that this permission does not transfer ownership of your books, private documents, annotations, account data, or other unrelated content.

16. Third-party services and links

Supabase, Cloudflare, Google sign-in, Microsoft Store, linked websites, device operating systems, and network providers are operated by third parties under their own terms. ZephRead does not control and is not responsible for their independent services, content, availability, or privacy practices.

Microsoft is not a party to these Terms between you and ZephRead except to the extent Microsoft’s Store or platform terms expressly apply. Nothing here makes Microsoft responsible for ZephRead support, cloud content, or product performance.

17. Changes, updates, and availability

We may update the app, add or remove functions, change supported formats or requirements, suspend an unsafe version, impose necessary security limits, or discontinue part of the Services. Store-managed updates may install under your Microsoft settings.

We do not promise uninterrupted or error-free cloud service. If ZephRead plans to discontinue a paid cloud service, we will provide reasonable notice and an opportunity to retrieve cloud content where practicable, subject to security, legal, and emergency exceptions. Any refund for an unused prepaid period is governed by the Store and applicable law.

18. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the local reader or close your account at any time. We may restrict or suspend account or cloud access when reasonably necessary to investigate a material breach, protect users or infrastructure, enforce limits, respond to legal requirements, or prevent fraud or harm.

Where practical, we will provide notice and an opportunity to correct the issue or retrieve cloud content. Immediate action may be taken for serious security risk, unlawful conduct, fraud, or where notice is prohibited. Termination of cloud access does not authorize deletion of original local files.

19. Privacy

The Privacy Policy explains how ZephRead processes personal information and private cloud content. By using account or cloud features, you acknowledge that those processing activities are necessary to provide the features you request. Optional consent can be withdrawn without affecting processing already lawfully performed or processing required on another legal basis.

20. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, ZephRead, the website, and cloud services are provided “as is” and “as available.” We disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, uninterrupted availability, error-free operation, and permanent preservation of data.

These disclaimers do not exclude an express promise made in these Terms or a warranty, remedy, or consumer right that cannot lawfully be excluded. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain disclaimers, so they may not apply to you.

21. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, ZephRead will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive loss, or for loss of profits, business, goodwill, or data, arising from the Services. You remain responsible for independent copies of important files and annotations.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, willful misconduct, death or personal injury caused by negligence, violation of mandatory privacy rights, or any other liability that law does not permit us to limit. Where a limitation is permitted, liability is limited only to the extent reasonable and enforceable under the law that applies to you.

22. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. This choice does not deprive you of mandatory, non-waivable consumer rights or protections, statutory warranties, refund rights, or rights to bring a claim in the courts available in your habitual place of residence.

Before starting a formal dispute, please email contact@zephread.com and allow 30 days for a good-faith attempt to resolve it. This informal step does not prevent urgent injunctive relief, a claim subject to a shorter legal deadline, a small-claims filing, a regulatory complaint, or any right that cannot be waived. These Terms do not require arbitration or select an exclusive court.

23. Changes to these Terms

We may revise these Terms for product, security, provider, or legal changes. The updated date identifies the current version. If a change materially reduces rights or changes an existing paid service, we will provide reasonable advance notice through the app, website, or account email where practicable. If you do not accept the revised Terms, you may stop using account and cloud features and request account deletion before the change takes effect.

24. General terms

These Terms and the policies incorporated above are the entire agreement about the Services. If one provision is unenforceable, it will be limited or removed only as necessary and the rest will remain effective. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. Provisions concerning ownership, payment already due, retained transaction evidence, disclaimers, liability, disputes, and general interpretation survive termination where their nature requires it.

You may not transfer your account or these Terms without our consent. We may transfer the Services and these Terms as part of a lawful reorganization or transfer of the project, subject to applicable notice and privacy duties. Neither party is responsible for delay caused by events beyond reasonable control, except that this does not excuse payment already due or duties that law does not permit us to avoid.

Translations may be provided for convenience. To the extent permitted by law, the English version controls a conflict, but this does not override mandatory language or consumer protections in your jurisdiction.

25. Contact

Send questions, complaints, or legal notices to contact@zephread.com. Include a clear subject and enough non-sensitive detail for us to understand the issue. Do not send passwords, access tokens, payment details, or private reading files.