Legal

Terms of Service

For the Nova federation operated at nova.thebugreport.dev.

Effective date

2026-07-28

Service

Nova at nova.thebugreport.dev

Operator

Bug Plowman

Contact

bug@thebugreport.dev

Privacy policy

nova.thebugreport.dev/privacy

1. Acceptance

By uploading to, retrieving from, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

You represent that you are at least 16 years old, or the age of digital consent where you live if that age is higher, and that you have the legal capacity to enter into this agreement.

2. What the Service is

The Service stores and retrieves digital content on a federated storage architecture. Encrypted copies of uploaded content are distributed across volunteer-operated storage nodes. Those nodes hold ciphertext only; the coordinator holds the keys required to decrypt content for delivery.

The Service is operated by an individual, with no company behind it, and is provided free of charge. It is provided "as is" and "as available" — see sections 9 and 10.

3. Beta status and data retention

The Service is a beta and is provided on an experimental basis.

The operator makes no representation, warranty, or guarantee that content uploaded to the Service will be retained, remain available, or remain recoverable for any period. The Service may be modified, suspended, or discontinued in whole or in part at any time, with or without notice.

You are solely responsible for maintaining your own copy of anything you upload. The Service is not a backup service and must not be relied on as the sole repository for any content.

4. Uploading, and the absence of accounts

The Service currently accepts anonymous uploads. There is no registration, no account, and no credential to safeguard. Accordingly there is no account-scoped facility to enumerate, edit, or bulk-delete uploads; an upload is identified by its content address alone.

The operator reserves the right to restrict uploads to authenticated or approved users at any time, in the operator's sole discretion.

You are responsible for all content uploaded from your connection or by your agents. To request removal, contact the address in section 18 with the URL or content identifier.

5. Acceptable use

You may not, and may not permit or encourage any third party to:

• Upload content that infringes the intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights of any person.
• Upload child sexual abuse material or non-consensual intimate imagery.
• Upload content that is unlawful in California, in Quebec, or in the jurisdiction from which the content originates or is accessed.
• Use the Service to harass, threaten, defame, or impersonate any person.
• Upload or distribute malware, or content designed to exploit, disrupt, or gain unauthorised access to any system.
• Attempt to circumvent rate limits, moderation, access controls, or other technical protections.
• Access the Service by automated means in a manner that materially degrades it, or interfere with any other person's use of it.
• Use the Service as backing storage for a commercial product or service, or in any manner whose bandwidth or storage cost is borne by the operator for a third party's benefit.
• Resell, sublicense, or otherwise commercialise access to the Service.

The operator may remove content and restrict access for any breach of this section, or where the operator reasonably believes a breach has occurred.

6. Your content: ownership, licence, and warranties

You retain ownership of the content you upload. By uploading, you grant the operator a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store the content in encrypted form on infrastructure operated by the operator and by federated storage partners, to transmit and display it as necessary to deliver the Service, and to generate technical derivatives such as resized copies as required to render it.

That licence exists solely to operate the Service. It confers no right to sell your content, to sublicense it for unrelated purposes, or to use it as training data for machine-learning systems.

You represent and warrant that you own or hold all rights necessary to upload the content and to grant the licence in this section, and that the content does not violate section 5 or any applicable law.

The licence terminates when the content is deleted. Deletion is effected by cryptographic erasure of the per-blob key, which renders the stored bytes unreadable, although encrypted remnants may persist on volunteer storage for up to 30 days while the unpin propagates.

7. Copyright and takedown

The operator responds to notices of claimed copyright infringement. Send notices to bug@thebugreport.dev or submit one at /legal/dmca.

A notice should identify the copyrighted work, identify the material claimed to be infringing with sufficient detail to locate it (the content identifier is ideal), provide your contact information, and include a statement of good-faith belief, a statement that the information is accurate, and your physical or electronic signature — the elements described at 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3).

Content subject to a valid notice is tombstoned, which crypto-shreds its key and broadcasts an unpin across the federation. If you believe material was removed in error, you may send a counter-notification to the same address.

Knowingly making a material misrepresentation in a notice or counter-notification may expose you to liability under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).

8. Repeat infringers

The operator maintains and reasonably implements a policy of terminating access, in appropriate circumstances, for users who repeatedly infringe the rights of others.

Three or more substantiated infringement notices attributable to the same source within any twelve-month period will result in that source being blocked from uploading. Where the source holds an upload credential or participates in the beta programme, that credential is revoked. The operator may act sooner where the circumstances warrant.

Appeals in writing to bug@thebugreport.dev.

9. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE OPERATOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

THE OPERATOR DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY CONTENT WILL BE PRESERVED, AVAILABLE, OR RECOVERABLE. DISTRIBUTED STORAGE CARRIES OPERATIONAL RISKS INCLUDING LOSS OF DONOR CAPACITY, RE-REPLICATION DELAY, AND PERMANENT LOSS OF CONTENT IN EVENTS EXCEEDING THE CONFIGURED REPLICATION FACTOR.

No advice or information obtained from the operator creates any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms.

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE OPERATOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT, OR ANY OTHER THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE OPERATOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

THE OPERATOR'S AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS (USD $100).

These limitations apply to the fullest extent permitted by law and are an essential basis of the bargain between you and the operator. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above may not apply to you; nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

11. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the operator and the federation's donor storage partners from and against any claim, demand, loss, liability, damage, cost, or expense, including reasonable legal fees, arising from or relating to content you upload, your use of the Service, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

The operator may assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter subject to indemnification, at your expense, in which case you agree to cooperate.

12. Suspension and termination

The operator may remove content, restrict access, or terminate your use of the Service at any time, with or without notice, for breach of these Terms or where the operator reasonably considers it necessary to protect the Service, its users, or third parties.

Sections 6, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, and 17 survive termination.

13. Privacy

The privacy policy forms part of these Terms and describes what is collected, how long it is kept, and the rights available to you.

14. Governing law and venue

These Terms, and any dispute arising from or relating to them or to the Service, are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws provisions. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

The state and federal courts located in California have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms or the Service, and you and the operator consent to personal jurisdiction and venue in those courts. Either party may bring a qualifying claim in small claims court.

Nothing in this section deprives a consumer of the protection of mandatory provisions of the law of the country or province in which they reside.

15. Changes to these Terms

The operator may revise these Terms at any time. Revisions are recorded on the changelog with the effective date of each. Your continued use of the Service after a revision takes effect constitutes acceptance of it. Where a revision materially reduces your rights, it will be posted before it takes effect.

16. General

No waiver. A failure or delay by the operator in enforcing any provision is not a waiver of that provision or of any other.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms without the operator's prior written consent. The operator may assign these Terms in connection with a transfer of the Service, and will record any such transfer on the changelog.

Force majeure. The operator is not liable for any failure or delay caused by circumstances beyond reasonable control, including hardware failure, network or power interruption, provider action, natural events, or acts of government.

No third-party beneficiaries. These Terms create no rights in any third party, except that the federation's donor storage partners may enforce section 11 as indemnitees.

Relationship. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, or agency relationship between you and the operator.

17. Severability and entire agreement

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be limited or severed to the minimum extent necessary and the remainder will continue in full force. These Terms, together with the privacy policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and the operator regarding the Service and supersede any prior understanding.

18. Contact

Terms, takedown notices, privacy requests, and appeals all reach the same person: bug@thebugreport.dev.