Terms of Service

1. Agreement to Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Mercury Stills ("we," "us," "our," or "Strategic.GG"), the operator of the website and services at Strategic.GG (the "Service"). By accessing or using the Service, creating an account, or posting content, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. When you register, we record your acceptance of the exact Terms version displayed to you.

2. Definitions

• Service — the Strategic.GG website, its "Swis" knowledge-graph canvases, the multi-domain maps (Gaming, Learning, Culture, Fitness, Finance, Society, and similar), the API, and related features.
• User Content — anything you create, upload, fork, or post through the Service: Swis canvases, replies, forks, uploaded avatar or background images, profile fields, and content posted by your bots or via the API.
• AI Content — content we generate automatically using AI systems and publish under our own account, notably the Society Map "In the News" lane (see Section 7). AI Content is our own first-party speech, not User Content.

3. Eligibility & Minimum Age

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may use the Service only with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to these Terms on your behalf. The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. If we learn that a child under 13 provided personal data, we will investigate, disable access where appropriate, and delete or de-identify the child's personal data as applicable law requires. We may retain a minimal acceptance, security, or legal record only where applicable law permits or requires it, as described in the Privacy Policy. By creating an account you affirmatively represent that you meet these requirements and have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms.

4. Your Content & License

You keep ownership of your User Content. We do not claim ownership of what you create, upload, fork, or post.

By posting User Content, you grant Mercury Stills a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, adapt (for example, resizing or transcoding images), publish, and display your User Content, solely to operate, promote, and improve the Service and to enable the Service's forking features. Because forking is a core mechanic of the Service, this license expressly includes letting other users fork, build on, and create derivative works from your public User Content. This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for: (a) reasonable backup copies; (b) content others have already forked; and (c) content we are required or permitted to retain by law or for abuse, safety, or evidence-preservation purposes (see Sections 8 and 9).

You are solely responsible for your User Content, and you represent that you own it or otherwise have all rights necessary to post it and to grant the license above.

5. Our Content

The Strategic.GG name, brand, logos, site design, layout, software, and code, and the AI Content we publish under our own account, are the property of Mercury Stills or used with permission, and are protected by intellectual-property laws. You may not distribute, modify, reuse, repost, copy, or exploit this first-party material for commercial purposes or personal gain without our express advance written permission. This restriction does not apply to User Content, which is governed by Section 4.

6. User Content & No Endorsement

Except for the AI Content described below, content on the Service is created by users, not by us. We do not pre-screen User Content, and we do not endorse, verify, or adopt any opinion, claim, or statement in it. User Content reflects the views of the user who posted it, not ours. We act as a host of that third-party content (User Content only) and are not the publisher or speaker of it.

8. Acceptable Use

You agree not to post, upload, or transmit, and not to use the Service to engage in, any of the following:

• Illegal content, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — zero tolerance. We report CSAM to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) as required by law and preserve related evidence.
• Infringing content that violates someone else's copyright, trademark, or other intellectual-property rights.
• Defamation or knowingly false statements of fact about a person or entity.
• Harassment, threats, or incitement of violence.
• Doxxing or privacy violations — publishing another person's private or identifying information without consent.
• Spam, scams, or deceptive content.
• Malware or anything designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to the Service or other users.
• Scraping or API abuse — automated access beyond posted rate limits, circumventing our anti-abuse controls, or creating multiple accounts to evade limits or bans.

To report content, use the in-app report form (reachable from any canvas, reply, or the footer). For copyright complaints, use the "Copyright / DMCA" category or the Designated Agent in Section 10.

9. Content Removal & Moderation

We may, in our sole discretion and without prior notice, hide, remove, refuse, restore, or restrict any content, and suspend or terminate any account, including for violations of these Terms. We have no obligation to monitor the Service, and any moderation we do undertake is a good-faith effort and does not make us the publisher of User Content.

Content we remove is generally hidden rather than permanently deleted. We may retain hidden content and related records where required or permitted by law or to preserve evidence for abuse, safety, copyright, defamation, or CSAM matters. Reporting content (Section 8 and Section 10) does not guarantee that it will be removed.

10. Copyright & DMCA Policy

We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. § 512, and act expeditiously to remove or disable access to material identified in a valid notice. To report content you believe infringes your copyright, you may use the in-app report form (the "Copyright / DMCA" category) or send a written notice to our Designated Agent. The report form is our system of record; a notice is deemed received when the report is recorded in our system, and any email is a courtesy notification only.

Your notice must include all six elements required by § 512(c)(3):

1. Your physical or electronic signature.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work you claim was infringed.
3. Identification of the infringing material and information reasonably sufficient for us to locate it, such as the Swis or reply URL or the ID shown in the in-app report form.
4. Your contact information (address, telephone number, and email).
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf.

Notice to the affected user. When we remove or disable User Content in response to a DMCA notice, we will take reasonable steps to promptly notify the affected user (for example, by email to the account on file), provide a copy of the notice, and explain the counter-notice option below.

Counter-notification. If your content was removed and you believe it was a mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notice to the Designated Agent including: your signature; identification of the removed material and its prior location; a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed by mistake or misidentification; your contact information; and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for your district (or, if outside the U.S., any district where we may be found) and will accept service from the complainant. If we receive a valid counter-notice and the original complainant does not, within 10 to 14 business days after we forward it, notify us that they have filed a court action seeking to restrain the activity, we will restore the material.

Misrepresentation. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), knowingly materially misrepresenting that material is infringing — or that it was removed by mistake or misidentification — may subject you to liability for damages, including costs and attorneys' fees.

Repeat infringers. In appropriate circumstances, and in our sole discretion, we will terminate the accounts of users who are repeat infringers.

11. Gaming Content

Our gaming content — including strategies, tier lists, and roster news — is based on current game patches and meta-analysis. We make no guarantees regarding the longevity or accuracy of this information, as game developers frequently update their software.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, in no event shall Mercury Stills or its operator, contractors, and service providers be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages — including loss of profits, data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses — arising out of your access to or use of, or inability to access or use, the Service. To the extent liability cannot be excluded, our total aggregate liability for any claim shall not exceed 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 parts of this section may not apply to you.

15. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Mercury Stills and its operator, contractors, and service providers from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your User Content, your use of the Service, or your breach of these Terms or of any law or third-party right.

16. Accounts & Termination

You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping your credentials secure. You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your account, with or without notice, if you violate these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, or where required by law; accounts of repeat copyright infringers will be terminated in appropriate circumstances (Section 10). On termination, the license you granted in Section 4 ends subject to the exceptions stated there, and any paid subscription is handled per Section 17.

17. Subscriptions & Billing

The Service offers Free, Pro, and Elite tiers at $0, $6, and $15 per month. Paid subscriptions are processed by Stripe as our payment processor; we do not store your full card numbers. Subscriptions renew automatically until canceled, and you may cancel at any time, effective at the end of the current billing period. Except where required by law, payments are non-refundable. We may change tier features or pricing on a going-forward basis, with notice via the Service.

18. Governing Law & Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. You agree that the exclusive venue for any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service is the state and federal courts located in New York, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there.

19. Changes to These Terms

We may modify these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the "Last Updated" date above. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

20. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be unenforceable, that provision will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.

21. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact us at mercury@strategic.gg.