Terms of Service

1. About Browns Digital

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are the agreement between you and Robert Brown trading as Browns Digital ("Browns Digital", "we", "us", or "our") for use of our websites and services.

• Provider: Robert Brown trading as Browns Digital
• Email: legal@brownsdigital.org
• Jurisdiction: Republic of South Africa

"You" means the individual or organisation using the services. If you use the services for an organisation, you confirm you have authority to bind it, and "you" includes that organisation.

2. Acceptance of terms

You accept these Terms by creating an account, signing in, purchasing a plan, or otherwise using any Browns Digital service. If you do not agree, do not use the services.

These Terms incorporate, by reference:

• our Privacy Policy;
• our Acceptable Use Policy;
• our Data Processing Addendum (where you use Studio hosting to process personal information of others); and
• our AI Policy (where AI features apply).

Plan descriptions and prices shown at checkout form part of your agreement for paid services.

3. Eligibility

To hold an account you must be at least 18 years old, or at least 13 with the consent and supervision of a parent or guardian who accepts these Terms on your behalf.

You may not use the services if you are barred from doing so under applicable law, or if we have previously terminated your account for breach.

4. Description of services

Browns Digital provides a small software-as-a-service platform for building, hosting, and managing websites, together with related account, help, and status surfaces. One account typically covers the services below.

We may add, change, or retire features as the platform evolves. Where a change materially reduces a paid entitlement, section 20 (Changes) applies.

5. Accounts and security

• Registration details must be accurate and kept current. The email on your account is our primary channel for notices.
• You are responsible for activity under your account. Keep credentials confidential and use available protections (for example passkeys, two-factor authentication, or session controls in My Account).
• Tell us promptly at security@brownsdigital.org if you suspect unauthorised access. Where available, revoke sessions yourself in My Account.
• Do not sell, transfer, or share account credentials, or impersonate another person or entity.
• We may reclaim usernames that infringe trademarks, impersonate others, or remain inactive for extended periods, with notice where practical.

6. Third-party platforms and integrations

Parts of the services rely on third parties, including payment processing, authentication providers, hosting infrastructure, email delivery, and optional community channels such as Discord.

• Their terms and privacy practices apply to your use of those platforms.
• We are not responsible for outages or acts of third parties beyond our reasonable control, except as required by law that cannot be excluded.
• Optional OAuth sign-in (for example Google or GitHub) shares limited profile information with us as described in the Privacy Policy.
• Community spaces (including Discord) are subject to those platforms' rules and our Acceptable Use Policy.

7. Acceptable use

You must use the services and any hosted sites in accordance with our Acceptable Use Policy. That policy forms part of these Terms and covers legal compliance, prohibited content, security abuse, spam, and fair use of shared resources.

We may remove content, suspend features, or suspend or terminate accounts for violations, as described in section 18 and the Acceptable Use Policy.

8. Your content and hosted sites

8.1 Ownership

You retain all rights in the sites, pages, text, images, code, and other material you create or upload ("Your Content"). These Terms do not transfer ownership of Your Content to us.

8.2 Licence to us

You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, transmit, and display Your Content solely to operate the services (including serving published sites, backups, previews, and support when you ask us to investigate an issue). The licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for residual backups that roll off automatically and content already lawfully public.

8.3 Your responsibility

You warrant that you have the rights needed to publish Your Content and that it complies with these Terms and the Acceptable Use Policy. If your site collects personal information from visitors, you are typically the responsible party under POPIA and must provide an appropriate privacy notice. See the Privacy Policy and Data Processing Addendum.

8.4 Hosting and domains

• Published Studio sites are served from our infrastructure under an assigned subdomain or a custom domain you connect.
• You must own or control any custom domain you connect. Domain registration and your registrar relationship remain between you and your registrar.
• Hosting is subject to fair-use and plan limits (storage, bandwidth, request rates, and similar). See the Acceptable Use Policy.
• We run backups for disaster recovery, not as your personal archive. Keep local copies of material you care about.

9. Intellectual property and takedowns (ECTA)

9.1 Our intellectual property

The services — including the Studio builder, platform software, design system, documentation, and the Browns Digital name and marks — are our property or licensed to us. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the services as intended by these Terms. Template designs may be used in sites you build and publish on the platform; they may not be extracted and redistributed as standalone templates elsewhere.

9.2 Reports and take-down notices

We host user content and do not pre-screen everything published. To report content on a hosted site:

• Email abuse@brownsdigital.org with the URL, the specific material, and the grounds (for example copyright infringement, defamation, or a breach of the Acceptable Use Policy).
• For copyright claims, include proof of your rights and a good-faith statement, consistent with the take-down notice procedure in section 77 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (ECTA).
• Valid reports typically result in removal or disabling within five business days, faster for serious harm. We may notify the site owner except where content is unlawful on its face.
• Knowingly false reports may breach these Terms, the Acceptable Use Policy, and ECTA section 77(2).

10. Fees, billing, and refunds

10.1 Plans

Core features may be available free. Paid plans add capacity and capabilities as described at purchase. The description at checkout forms part of your agreement.

10.2 Payments

• Payments are processed by Paystack in South African Rand (ZAR) unless stated otherwise. We do not receive your full card number.
• Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until cancelled. Cancel in My Account at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period and you keep paid features until then.
• Prices may change. Existing subscribers receive at least 30 days' email notice before a price change applies to their renewal.
• If a renewal payment fails, we may retry and email you. If payment remains outstanding after 14 days, we may downgrade the account to a free plan; content retention follows the Privacy Policy.
• Prices include VAT where applicable.

10.3 Refunds and cooling-off

• Cooling-off: for purchases made entirely as electronic transactions, ECTA section 44 may give you a seven-day cooling-off right. Where it applies, we honour a full refund of the initial purchase, less usage-based charges actually consumed.
• Faults: if a paid feature is materially unavailable or defective and we cannot remedy it within a reasonable time, you may be entitled to a pro-rata refund for the affected period, reflecting rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 (CPA) where it applies.
• Otherwise: fees for periods already elapsed are generally not refundable, but we consider genuine edge cases individually if you contact us before disputing a charge with your bank.

11. Hosted content, data, and privacy roles

For your Browns Digital account, billing, and platform use, we are typically the responsible party (controller) under POPIA, as described in the Privacy Policy.

For personal information of visitors or end users collected through sites you publish on Studio, you are typically the responsible party, and we act as an operator (processor) for hosting that data under the Data Processing Addendum.

We do not sell personal information. Use of AI features is governed by the AI Policy.

12. Beta and experimental features

Features marked beta, preview, or experimental are provided for evaluation. They may change, break, or be withdrawn without notice, may have additional limits, and are excluded from any availability commitments unless expressly stated.

13. Feedback

If you send ideas, suggestions, or bug reports, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to use them without restriction or compensation. Suggesting a feature does not entitle you to free access to a paid product.

14. Availability and support

• We aim for high availability, but the services are provided without a formal uptime guarantee unless your plan expressly states one.
• Live status and incident history are at https://status.brownsdigital.org.
• Planned maintenance that we expect to be disruptive is announced on the status page in advance where reasonably possible.
• Support is provided via https://help.brownsdigital.org and email, on a reasonable-efforts basis during South African business hours.

15. Disclaimer of warranties

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the services are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the services will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that user-hosted content is accurate or lawful.

Nothing in this section limits rights you have under the CPA or other law that cannot be excluded.

16. Limitation of liability

• To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising from or related to the services.
• Our total aggregate liability for all claims in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in that period, or (b) R500.
• Nothing in these Terms excludes liability for fraud, gross negligence where exclusion is not permitted, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including rights under the CPA where it applies to you.
• We are not responsible for content published by users on their hosted sites; section 9 is the primary mechanism for addressing it.

17. Indemnification

You will indemnify and hold us harmless from third-party claims, damages, and reasonable legal costs arising from: (a) Your Content or the sites you publish; (b) your breach of these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy; or (c) your violation of law or third-party rights. We will notify you of any such claim and may participate in the defence with counsel of our choosing. This clause applies to the extent permitted where the CPA governs your use.

18. Suspension and termination

18.1 By you

You may stop using the services and delete your account at any time through My Account (or by contacting us if self-service deletion is unavailable). Deletion is subject to any grace period and retention schedule in the Privacy Policy.

18.2 By us

• For breach: we may suspend or terminate accounts, remove content, or restrict features. For most violations we notify you and, where reasonable, give a chance to fix the issue. For severe violations (illegal content, security attacks, child sexual abuse material, active fraud) we may act immediately.
• Appeals: reply to the notice or use Help; a human reviews every appeal.
• Discontinuation: if we discontinue a service entirely, paid subscribers receive at least 60 days' notice and a pro-rata refund of prepaid unused fees, and export remains available through the notice period where reasonably practicable.

18.3 Effect

On termination your licence to use the services ends and published sites under the account go offline. Provisions that by nature should survive (including intellectual property, feedback, warranties, liability, indemnity, governing law, and general terms) continue to apply.

19. Governing law and disputes

• These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.
• Before formal proceedings, both parties agree to try to resolve disputes informally: email us with details, and we will have 30 days to work with you.
• Unresolved disputes are subject to the jurisdiction of the South African courts. If the CPA applies to you, nothing here limits your right to approach the National Consumer Commission or a consumer court.

20. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the platform evolves. For material changes we give at least 14 days' notice by email and, where practical, via status.brownsdigital.org before the new Terms take effect. The version shown on the policy page identifies the current revision.

If you do not agree with a change, stop using the services and, for paid plans, contact us about a pro-rata refund of any prepaid period materially affected. Continued use after the effective date is acceptance.

21. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Data Processing Addendum (where applicable), AI Policy (where applicable), and plan-specific terms at purchase are the entire agreement regarding the services.
• Severability. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remain in effect and the provision is enforced to the maximum extent permitted.
• No waiver. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, with notice to you.
• Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delays caused by events beyond reasonable control (including power or network failures, natural disasters, or acts of government), except payment obligations.
• Notices. We send notices to your account email. You send notices to legal@brownsdigital.org.

22. Contact

• Email: legal@brownsdigital.org
• Help: https://help.brownsdigital.org
• Status: https://status.brownsdigital.org
• Policies hub: /policies/
• Community: Discord