Terms of Service

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

Ripenote (“we”, “us”, “our”) provides the Service. These terms govern your use of the Ripenote website and web app at ripenote.com and any installed copy of it (the “Service”). By using the Service you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use it. Reach us by email from the contact page.

2. What the Service is

Ripenote lets you write a message (a “letter” or “receipt”) and encrypt it in your browser so that it can only be decrypted on or after a date and time you choose. It uses timelock encryption on the drand “quicknet” network, using the open tlock and age formats. The sealed message is placed in a link, a QR code image, a printable file or a downloadable .seal file that you keep.

Opening a capsule requires fetching one public value (a “beacon”) from the drand network after the chosen time. Opening is free for everyone and never requires payment.

3. No accounts, no storage, no personal information

There are no user accounts, and we don't ask for or collect your name, email address or any other personal information. We do not receive, store or have access to the content of your messages, the dates you choose, or the names and titles you add. They exist only in the links, images and files you create. We cannot recover, resend, change, delete or open any capsule for you or anyone else. See the privacy policy for the few technical details that do reach a server.

4. Your responsibilities

• You are solely responsible for the content you seal and share, and for who you share it with.
• You are responsible for keeping your links, cards and files. If you lose all copies, the message is gone— we have no way to restore it.
• Anyone who has a capsule link or file can open it after its date. Titles and names you add are visible before opening.
• You must comply with the laws that apply to you.

5. Acceptable use

You must not use the Service to create or share content that:

• is illegal, or promotes or facilitates illegal activity;
• harasses, threatens, intimidates or incites violence against anyone;
• sexualises minors in any way, or exploits or endangers children;
• contains or links to malware, phishing or other harmful code;
• infringes someone else's intellectual property or privacy rights;
• impersonates others in a misleading way, or is used for fraud.

You must not attempt to disrupt the Service, abuse the license endpoints (for example by automated key guessing), or circumvent license checks.

Because content is encrypted on your device and never reaches us, we cannot see or moderate it, and we cannot read a capsule before its date. We do act on reports about specific shared links: we can disable a reported capsule so that it no longer opens on ripenote.com. We can't delete copies of a link or file held elsewhere, and a disabled capsule can still be opened with other tlock-compatible tools.

6. The drand dependency and its risks

Ripenote relies on the drand quicknet network, which is run by an independent group of organizations. We do not control drand. In particular:

• If a threshold of drand's operators colluded, they could open capsules before their date.
• The cryptography used is not quantum-resistant.
• If the drand network stops publishing rounds permanently (for example, if its operators shut down and deleted their keys), capsules for dates after that point could never be opened.

For dates more than 5 years ahead we show a risk note before sealing. Please don't use Ripenote as the only copy of anything you cannot afford to lose or to have opened early.

7. Availability

We provide the Service “as is” and “as available”. We don't guarantee that the website, the drand relays or any third-party service will be available at any given time. Capsules use open formats and can be opened without Ripenote (see how).

8. Lifetime, occasion packs and gift keys

• Ripenote Lifetime is a one-time purchase that unlocks the paid features on up to 3 devices at a time. There is no subscription, and nothing is ever charged to open a capsule.
• Occasion packs (Wedding pack, Classroom pack, Baby / 18th birthday pack and Team / Launch pack) are one-time purchases. Each includes Lifetime plus the pack's own features. The Team / Launch pack can be active on up to 10 devices; the others on up to 3.
• All purchases are processed by Dodo Payments, our Merchant of Record, which is the seller of record for your order and whose buyer terms also apply.
• Gift keys. If you buy more than one key in one order, the extra keys are gift keys you may give to other people. A gift key is simply a license key: it has no cash value, cannot be exchanged for money, has no balance and does not expire. Refunds go to the buyer, and a refunded gift key stops working.
• You can free a device slot by deactivating that device on the Your keys page.
• Your license lasts for the lifetime of the product. If we ever discontinue Ripenote, capsules you sealed keep working, because they don't depend on your license or on us.
• Refunds are covered by our refund policy. A refund disables the key.
• Publishing a key, or using it beyond its device limit, may result in the key being disabled.

9. Personal and commercial use

The free version, Lifetime, and the Wedding, Classroom and Baby packs are licensed for personal, family, classroom and non-commercial use. Using Ripenote for a business — for example sealing letters for customers or employees, or putting a company name on cards — requires the Team / Launch pack, which includes a commercial-use license. Teachers using the Classroom pack with their own class are not commercial use. See the license page for details.

10. Age

You must be at least 13 years old to use Ripenote, or at least 16 if you live in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom. Younger children may take part only when a parent, guardian or teacher operates the tool — for example, a teacher running a class batch, or a parent writing down a child's letter. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you need a parent or guardian's permission to make a purchase.

11. Copyright complaints (DMCA)

We respect intellectual property. If you believe a Ripenote link or page infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent at legal@ripenote.com. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3), your notice must include:

1. your physical or electronic signature;
2. identification of the copyrighted work you say is infringed;
3. the full Ripenote link (everything after # included) that you say infringes, so we can find it;
4. your name, address, telephone number and email address;
5. a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised by the owner, its agent or the law;
6. a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorised to act for the owner.

Because we cannot read capsules before their date, we act on valid notices by disabling the capsule on ripenote.com. Counter-notice: if you believe a capsule was disabled by mistake, you may send a counter-notice to the same address with your signature, the link, a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief it was disabled by mistake or misidentification, your name, address and phone number, and your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for your district (or, outside the United States, any judicial district where we may be found). We may restore the capsule 10–14 business days after forwarding a valid counter-notice unless the complainant tells us they have filed a court action. Repeat infringers: where we can identify a repeat infringer — for example by a license key used to seal infringing content — we will disable their keys in appropriate circumstances.

12. Encryption and export

The Service performs encryption in your browser. You are responsible for complying with any laws on the use, import or export of encryption software that apply where you are, and you must not use the Service where doing so is prohibited or from a country or by a person subject to applicable sanctions.

13. Intellectual property and trademarks

You keep all rights to what you write. The Ripenote name, design, seal artwork and website code are ours, except for open-source components and fonts, which are used under their own licenses (see Licenses).

QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

Ripenote is an independent product and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by drand, the League of Entropy, X Corp., Dodo Payments, DENSO WAVE, or Apple. All trademarks belong to their owners.

14. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not warrant that capsules will be openable at any particular time, or that they cannot be opened early by parties outside our control.

15. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, content, profits or goodwill, arising from your use of the Service — including a capsule being lost, opened early, or never opened. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or USD 50 if you paid nothing. Some jurisdictions don't allow these limits, so they may not apply to you; nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

16. Changes

We may update these terms. We'll change the “Last updated” date and, for significant changes, note it on the home page. Continuing to use the Service after changes means you accept them.

17. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Connecticut, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Courts in Connecticut, United States have jurisdiction, unless the law of your country of residence gives you the right to bring claims locally.

18. Contact

Questions about these terms: contact@ripenote.com. Legal and copyright notices: legal@ripenote.com.