Terms of Use

These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of pawz.space (the "Service"), operated by Alex Kohen ("we", "us", "our"), a France-based independent operator. By placing an order, uploading a photo or video, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

1. What the Service is

pawz.space encodes a photo or short video you upload into a modulated laser signal, which is physically transmitted from our transmitter into the night sky. Depending on the tier you choose, you receive a transmission certificate, a link to a live tracker showing the signal's modeled distance from Earth over time, and/or a downloadable video of the transmission.

The Service is a tribute and a symbolic act, not a scientific communication attempt. We make no claim, express or implied, that any signal will be detected, received, intercepted, or understood by any person, organization, extraterrestrial entity, or anything else. We do not guarantee scientific, technical, or any other efficacy of the transmission beyond the physical act of encoding and transmitting a laser signal as described on the Service.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, to place an order. By using the Service you represent that you meet this requirement and that all information you provide is accurate.

3. Orders, pricing and payment

• All prices are listed in US dollars and charged as a one-time payment at checkout. There is no subscription.
• Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc. We do not directly collect or store your full payment card details.
• We may change prices at any time; the price shown to you at checkout is the price you pay for that order.
• We reserve the right to refuse or cancel any order at our discretion, including for suspected fraud, abuse, or violation of these Terms, in which case any payment collected will be refunded.

4. Transmission timing and no recall

For paid tiers, the transmission is initiated automatically upon confirmed payment. Once a signal has been transmitted, it cannot be recalled, cancelled, edited, or deleted — this is a physical consequence of how the Service works, not a limitation we impose. By placing an order you acknowledge and accept this.

5. Refunds

Because transmission occurs immediately upon payment confirmation, in the ordinary course of events there is no window during which an order can be cancelled for a refund. If a technical failure on our part prevents your file from being properly encoded or transmitted, or if you were charged in error, contact us at alex@pawz.space and we will investigate in good faith and issue a refund at our discretion if warranted. This section does not affect any non-waivable statutory rights you may have under the law of your jurisdiction.

6. Your content

You retain all ownership rights in the photos, videos, names, and messages you upload ("Your Content"). By submitting Your Content you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to:

• encode Your Content into a transmitted signal;
• store Your Content on our infrastructure for the purpose of generating your certificate, tracker page, and signal film;
• where you use the free Open Signal tier, publicly display Your Content (photo and message) in the public archive on the Service, indefinitely, as this tier is public by design and disclosed as such at the point of submission.

You represent and warrant that you own or have the necessary rights to Your Content, that it does not infringe any third party's intellectual property, privacy, or other rights, and that it does not contain unlawful, obscene, hateful, or otherwise objectionable material. We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to review, refuse, or remove any content at our sole discretion, including from the public archive.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to upload content that is illegal, infringing, defamatory, hateful, or that impersonates any person without consent; to attempt to disrupt, reverse-engineer, or abuse the Service, its infrastructure, or its rate limits; or to use the Service for any purpose other than its intended personal, non-commercial tribute use without our prior written consent.

8. Intellectual property

Except for Your Content, all text, graphics, design, software, and other material on the Service are owned by us or our licensors and protected by intellectual property law. You may not copy, reproduce, or create derivative works from the Service without our prior written permission.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE, OR THAT ANY TRACKER, CERTIFICATE, OR SIGNAL FILM WILL BE AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES.

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE AND OUR OPERATORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, GOODWILL, OR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR THE SPECIFIC ORDER GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, such as liability for death, personal injury, or fraud.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from Your Content, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

12. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without notice, for conduct we believe violates these Terms or is harmful to other users, us, or third parties. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 6, 9, 10, and 11) will survive.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update 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.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of France, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer-protection provisions of your country of residence that may apply. Any dispute arising from these Terms or the Service shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of France, unless mandatory law provides otherwise.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to alex@pawz.space.