Effective date: [DATE] Last updated: [DATE]
ListenToYourCity.com ("Listen to Your City," "the Service," "we," "us") is operated by [LEGAL ENTITY NAME], a [STATE] [entity type], located at [ADDRESS].
By creating an account, uploading a recording, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms of Use and to the Content Licensing & Copyright Policy, which is part of this agreement. If you don't agree, don't use the Service.
Listen to Your City is a public archive of place-based sound. Contributors record audio in the field, upload it with a location, and the recording appears as a pin on a public map that anyone can listen to.
The Service is a platform. We host and display what contributors upload. We do not verify the accuracy, origin, or legality of any recording, and we are not the author or publisher of contributor content.
Eligibility. You must be at least 13 years old to hold an account. If you are under 18, you may only use the Service with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian, who agrees to be bound by these Terms on your behalf.
Accuracy. You must give a real, working email address and a display name. Your display name is public and is used as the attribution credit on your recordings. Choose it accordingly.
Security. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account. Tell us immediately at [SECURITY EMAIL] if you believe your account has been compromised.
One human, one account. Don't create accounts through automated means, don't sell or transfer your account, and don't create a new account to evade a suspension.
Free accounts may upload recordings up to one (1) minute in length, subject to a total storage allowance we publish on the pricing page and may adjust with notice.
Paid accounts unlock longer recordings and larger storage allowances, priced by tier. Current tiers and prices are on the pricing page and are incorporated here by reference.
Billing. Paid plans renew automatically at the interval you select until you cancel. You authorize us to charge your payment method on each renewal. Cancel any time from your account settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Except where required by law, fees already paid are non-refundable, including for partial periods.
Price changes. We'll give you at least 30 days' notice before a price increase takes effect on your plan. Continuing past the effective date means you accept the new price.
If your plan lapses or you downgrade. Recordings that exceed your new allowance stay online but become read-only, and you won't be able to upload new recordings until you're back under the limit. If your account stays over the limit for 90 days, we may archive or delete the excess recordings, oldest-uploaded first — with at least 30 days' email warning first, and never without giving you a chance to export.
Recordings already released under Creative Commons remain publicly available under that license regardless of your plan status. See Section 12 and the Licensing Policy.
You keep ownership of every recording you upload. Nothing in these Terms transfers your copyright to us.
What you do grant is a license — either an open Creative Commons license to the public, or, if you tag the recording Protected, a narrower license to us for the purpose of running the Service. The full terms of both are in the Content Licensing & Copyright Policy. Read that document; it governs how your work can be used, and one of its choices is permanent.
Every time you upload, you represent that:
a. You made it, or you have the rights. You personally captured the recording, or you have written permission from whoever did.
b. You have cleared what's inside the recording. This is the one people miss. A recording of a live performance captures two separate copyrights: yours in the recording, and the performer's and songwriter's in the music. Your permission to release your recording does not carry theirs.
That means: no recordings whose primary content is a musical performance — a brass band, a club set, a second line, a busker, a church choir, a stage — unless you have the performers' permission. Incidental music that drifts through a street soundscape is different from a recording of a set. If a listener would call it a recording of a performance, get permission or don't upload it.
The same applies to broadcast audio, recorded music playing in the background as the main subject, theatrical performances, and copyrighted speeches or readings.
c. You have handled consent for voices. If people are identifiable in your recording — by voice, by name, by what they say — you are responsible for having whatever consent the law of that place requires, and for the privacy interests of the people recorded. Louisiana permits recording a conversation with the consent of one party to it; other states and countries require the consent of everyone. If you're recording somewhere other than where you live, that place's law is what applies to you. When in doubt, ask the people in your recording.
Never upload audio of a private conversation captured without the participants' knowledge, recordings made inside homes, medical settings, schools, or other private spaces without permission, or audio of a child that identifies them.
d. You were lawfully where you recorded. Public streets, parks, and sidewalks are generally fine. Private property, ticketed venues, and secured facilities usually have their own rules, and many venues prohibit recording as a condition of entry. Getting past a venue's rules is your problem, not ours.
e. The recording is what you say it is. Don't misstate where or when something was recorded, don't upload synthesized or AI-generated audio as a field recording, and don't materially fake a soundscape. Composite or edited recordings must be labeled as such. Sound design and generative audio are legitimate work — they're just not what this archive is for, and passing one off as the other corrupts the record.
f. It isn't prohibited content. See Section 8.
Recordings are pinned to a location. That location is public.
Do not pin a recording to your home, a friend's home, a shelter, a clinic, or anywhere the location itself exposes someone. If you record at or near a sensitive address, use the location-fuzzing option at upload, which places the pin within an approximate radius instead of an exact point.
We are not responsible for consequences arising from location data you choose to publish.
Don't upload, and don't use the Service to distribute:
And don't:
We may review, refuse, label, geographically restrict, or remove any recording, at our discretion, with or without notice. We are not obligated to monitor content, and choosing to moderate some content doesn't make us responsible for all of it.
If we remove a recording of yours, we'll tell you why by email where practical, and you can respond at [APPEALS EMAIL].
Removal from the Service does not revoke a Creative Commons license already granted. See the Licensing Policy, Section 5.
We respond to notices of claimed infringement under the DMCA. Full procedure, including what a valid notice must contain and how to file a counter-notice, is in the Content Licensing & Copyright Policy, Section 12.
Designated Copyright Agent: [AGENT NAME] [LEGAL ENTITY NAME] [MAILING ADDRESS] [EMAIL] [PHONE]
We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.
The Service's software, design, database structure, curation, map interface, name, and logo belong to us. Contributor recordings belong to contributors. You may not use "Listen to Your City" or our logo to suggest endorsement or affiliation without written permission.
You can leave any time. Delete your account from settings, or write to [SUPPORT EMAIL].
When you delete your account:
We can end your access for breach of these Terms, for legal reasons, or if we discontinue the Service. Except in cases of serious or repeated violation, we'll give you notice and an export window.
If we shut down the Service, we will give at least 90 days' notice, provide a full export of your own recordings, and make a good-faith effort to place the openly licensed portion of the archive with a public institution or nonprofit archive so the collection survives us.
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." We disclaim all warranties to the fullest extent the law allows, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
Specifically, we do not warrant that:
Keep your own copies of your work. We are an archive, not a backup service.
If you rely on a Creative Commons recording from this archive, you rely on the uploader's representations, not on ours. We do not clear rights. We do not verify claims. Do your own diligence for any commercial use.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, [LEGAL ENTITY NAME] and its owners, employees, and contractors will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, or loss of goodwill, arising from your use of the Service.
Our total aggregate liability for any claim arising out of these Terms is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).
Some jurisdictions don't allow these limitations; where that's true, they apply to the extent permitted.
You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless [LEGAL ENTITY NAME] from claims, damages, and reasonable legal fees arising from (a) recordings you upload, (b) your breach of these Terms or your representations in Section 6, or (c) your violation of any law or third-party right. This survives termination of your account.
We may update these Terms. For material changes, we'll email registered users and post notice on the site at least 30 days before they take effect. Continuing to use the Service after that date means you accept the new Terms.
Changes to these Terms never alter a Creative Commons license already granted on a recording. Licenses attach at the moment of upload under the version then in effect, and stay attached.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Louisiana, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.
Any dispute will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. Either party may bring a claim in small claims court instead.
[Attorney decision point] — If you want binding arbitration and a class-action waiver instead of court, that clause needs to be drafted and presented with a clear opt-out, and it changes the enforceability analysis. Left out deliberately rather than guessed at.
These Terms plus the Licensing Policy and Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us. If a provision is held unenforceable, the rest stays in force. Our failure to enforce a provision isn't a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, with notice to you.
[SUPPORT EMAIL] [LEGAL ENTITY NAME] [MAILING ADDRESS]