Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of Open Stamp Commons (“OSC”), operated by Alpha Romeo Delta LLC (“we”, “us”). By accessing or using OSC, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use OSC.

You must be at least 13 years old to use OSC and to create an account. You agree to provide accurate information and to maintain one account per person. Browsing the catalog never requires an account.

You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping your credentials and API keys secure. Notify us promptly at security@openstampcommons.org if you suspect unauthorized access.

Your use of OSC is subject to our Acceptable Use Policy, which prohibits, among other things, unauthorized scraping or automated access outside the published API, contributing false or infringing content, harassment, spam, and attempts to bypass rate limits or security controls. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate it.

This is the most important section for contributors — please read it carefully. When you contribute catalog records, images, comments, edit suggestions, or other content to OSC, you irrevocably dedicate that content to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal dedication, and you grant us a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, and distribute it for any purpose.

You represent and warrant that, for everything you contribute:

• you created it yourself, or it is already in the public domain, or you otherwise hold all rights necessary to dedicate it under CC0; and
• for images specifically, you confirm at upload: “I created this image or it is in the public domain, and I dedicate it to the public domain under CC0.”

A false declaration is a breach of these Terms and may create liability for you. We are not obligated to publish or retain any contribution, and Stewards may edit, re-classify, or remove content in accordance with the Community Contribution Specification. Deleting your account does not withdraw the CC0 dedication of content already contributed; such content remains in the public catalog, re-attributed to “Deleted User.”

Paid tiers (such as Collector, Developer, and Commercial) are billed through Stripe on a recurring basis, typically monthly, and renew automatically until cancelled. You may cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you retain paid features until then. We will give at least 30 days’ notice before any price increase takes effect. Paid tiers add capacity and convenience only — the catalog and its identifiers are never paywalled.

Refunds are governed by our Refund Policy, which offers a full refund within 14 days of a first-time subscription purchase.

The catalog data is CC0 and belongs to the public. The governing specifications, including the OSID specification, are likewise released under CC0. Separately, the OSC name and brand, the platform software, and the design system are the property of Alpha Romeo Delta LLC or its licensors; the platform's source code is proprietary and all rights are reserved. A companion OSID format-validation library is released separately under an open license for third-party integrations. All trademark rights are reserved. Authority to assign OSIDs rests exclusively with OSC.

We respond to copyright complaints under our Copyright & DMCA Policy. Send notices to dmca@openstampcommons.org.

OSC is provided without a service-level guarantee for free accounts. Any service-level commitments for Commercial customers are set out in a separate written agreement. The permanent OSID resolver is a core commitment, but we do not warrant uninterrupted availability.

You may stop using OSC at any time, cancel any subscription, and delete your account. We may suspend or terminate access for violations of these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy. On termination, your subscription ends and personal data is deleted as described in the Privacy Policy; contributed records persist in the public catalog under CC0, re-attributed to “Deleted User.”

OSC is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. The catalog is community-contributed: we do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any individual record, valuation, or identification, including results from Assisted Identification, which are suggestions only and are never auto-confirmed.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Alpha Romeo Delta LLC and its members will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits or data. Our total liability for any claim arising out of or relating to OSC is limited to the greater of the amounts you paid us in the 12 months before the claim or USD 100. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these may not apply to you.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Alpha Romeo Delta LLC from claims, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your content, your use of OSC, or your violation of these Terms or the rights of others.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Ohio, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The exclusive venue for disputes is the state and federal courts located in Ohio. Any agreement to resolve disputes by arbitration or to waive class actions will be finalized with counsel before paid tiers launch.

We may update these Terms; for material changes we will give at least 30 days’ notice, and continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Refund Policy, and Copyright Policy, are the entire agreement between you and us regarding OSC. Questions: legal@openstampcommons.org.