Terms of Use — jpgames.app

Effective: 2026-07-14

This page tells you the rules of the house at jpgames.app. It's written in plain language on purpose. It is not legal advice; anything here that reads like a contract term should be reviewed by a lawyer before being relied upon in a dispute.

By using jpgames.app you agree to these terms. If you don't, please don't use the service.

1. Who runs the service

jpgames.app is operated by John Paist. Contact: hello@jpaistiv.com. The PRIVACY.md on this repository (also served at /privacy) covers what data the service collects and why.

2. Accounts

  1. Accounts are optional. You may play as a guest without registering — a random playerId in a cookie is all that identifies you.
  2. If you register, one account per person. You must be at least 13 years old to register (in some jurisdictions the minimum is 18 — if that applies to you, that's your minimum).
  3. Keep your password to yourself. If you share it, whoever has it can play as you.
  4. The service may reset a password on request via email to hello@jpaistiv.com while self-serve reset is not yet built.
  5. The service may terminate or suspend accounts that violate these terms.

3. Acceptable use

Play like you would at a friend's kitchen table.

  1. Play fair. No collusion between accounts, no exchange of hand information via other channels, no using a second device or account to see a partner's hand, no external tools that assist play (bot engines, hand analysers running on the side, etc.).
  2. Don't automate. No bots pretending to be human players. No scraping, crawling, or scripted access to the service. The account system exists so real people can play real games.
  3. Don't attack the service. No probing for vulnerabilities beyond what would happen through normal play. Security research is welcome — please report privately per SECURITY.md.
  4. Behave. No harassment, no impersonation, no discriminatory or abusive display names, no content that would be inappropriate at someone's kitchen table.
  5. Multiple accounts for one person are not permitted. If a handle is banned, creating a new handle to evade the ban is a ban extension, not a fresh start.

4. What we may do about violations

  1. Warn you.
  2. Remove content (e.g., a display name that violates §3d).
  3. Reset your account, adjust your stats, or void a game result.
  4. Temporarily or permanently ban an account.
  5. Report activity to law enforcement where required.

The service is not a court. Enforcement is best-effort and imperfect.

5. Intellectual property

  1. The software that runs jpgames.app — the server, the client, the assets — is proprietary. See LICENSE for the full text. Nothing in these Terms grants you a license to it beyond using the running service.
  2. The games themselves — Euchre, Bid Euchre, and the rest of the planned catalog — are traditional card games in the public domain. We don't claim ownership of them.
  3. The specific variant rules and their names ("US/Canada preset", "British preset", the Benny, the trump ordering, etc.) are our particular implementation of these public-domain games. Copy them freely into your own kitchen-table games; the software implementation itself is the part that's proprietary.
  4. If you send us feedback or bug reports, we may use that feedback to improve the service without owing you anything for it.

6. Third-party services and content

  1. jpgames.app is hosted on Hetzner Cloud, uses Caddy for TLS with certificates from Let's Encrypt, and uses Porkbun for DNS. Their policies apply to what they see of your connection.
  2. jpgames.app does not use ad networks, does not embed third-party analytics, and does not include third-party content that would set cookies on your device from other domains. See STORAGE-KEYS.md at /privacy/storage-keys for the exact list of what we store.
  3. If we add sign-in via Google or Apple later, those providers' terms and privacy policies apply to that authentication step. You will always be able to sign in with a plain username + password instead.

7. Uptime and changes

  1. The service is provided as-is and as-available. Downtime, game state loss during a crash, or feature changes may happen. The server-side backup covers persisted state within a nightly window; we don't promise perfect recovery for any given game.
  2. We may change these Terms. Material changes will be reflected in the effective date at the top of this page and — once accounts exist — announced to signed-in users the next time they visit. Continued use after a change means you accept the new terms.
  3. We may add or remove features. We may end the service.

8. Disclaimers

  1. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
  2. The service is not a gambling platform. You cannot deposit money or wager on games. Any private wagers between friends are between friends and are not the operator's concern or responsibility.

9. Limits on liability

  1. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the operator's total liability to you for any claim arising from your use of jpgames.app is limited to US$100.
  2. The operator is not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages — loss of profits, loss of data, loss of your Euchre bragging rights — arising from your use of the service.
  3. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of certain damages. If a limitation in this section is not enforceable where you are, it applies to the maximum extent that is enforceable.

10. Dispute resolution

  1. Talk to us first. Most problems come from misunderstandings. Email hello@jpaistiv.com and we will try to resolve any dispute informally within a reasonable time.
  2. If informal resolution fails, disputes are handled through the courts of general jurisdiction where the service is operated. No class actions.
  3. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking urgent injunctive relief where genuinely necessary.

11. General

  1. Entire agreement. These Terms + PRIVACY.md + LICENSE are the whole agreement between you and the operator about jpgames.app.
  2. Severability. If any part of these Terms is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
  3. No waiver. If we don't enforce a term one time, that doesn't mean we waive it for the future.
  4. Assignment. You may not assign your account or rights under these Terms. We may assign this agreement to a successor operator of the service.

12. Contact

  1. Email: hello@jpaistiv.com
  2. Security reports: see SECURITY.md in the repository.

This document is written in good faith to describe how the service actually operates, and is intentionally short. It is not legal advice. Confirm specific enforceability with a lawyer before relying on any section in an actual dispute.

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