Terms of service

Who these terms are between

These terms are an agreement between the organisation that subscribes to Copytone (“you”) and Owen Fisher, a sole trader trading as Copytone (“Copytone”, “we” or “us”).

Copytone is sold to businesses and other organisations, not to consumers. The person who signs up confirms that they may accept these terms for their organisation. By signing up or using Copytone, the organisation accepts them.

Our data processing agreement forms part of these terms. Our privacy policy explains how we handle personal data.

What Copytone does

You upload your guides, exports of what your customers said, and the copy you want checked. Copytone can also read the public pages of your website.

Copytone counts the words your customers use. It checks each sentence of your copy against those words, your own rules and a plain English standard, gives it a verdict with its reasons, and suggests changes. For sentences worth a look, an AI model writes up to three starting points, and Copytone keeps only those its formula ranks above the sentence as it stands. A starting point is shown only when a person asks for one.

Copytone never changes your copy. A person on your team reads each suggestion and decides whether to apply it. Copytone never publishes anything, and never changes your website, your emails or any other system.

Who Copytone is not for

Copytone is not available to organisations that offer mental health services, or assessment, diagnosis or treatment for ADHD, autism, dyslexia or another neurodevelopmental condition or learning difficulty. That includes an organisation that offers one of these alongside other work, such as an online doctor with a mental health service. An agency may not use Copytone for a client that offers one.

To check, Copytone reads your website's home page when you set up your organisation, and the addresses of its pages when it first reads the site. If the site looks as if it offers one of these services, setup pauses until we have checked by hand. If it does, we end the subscription and refund any time you have paid for and not used.

Your account

• Give accurate details, and keep them up to date.
• You sign in with a password or with a link sent to your email. Keep both secure, and do not pass sign-in links on.
• Only give access to people who work for or with your organisation, up to the number your plan allows. You are responsible for what they do in Copytone.
• Tell us straight away if you think someone has got into your account.

Plans

Each plan allows a number of websites or brands and a number of people, as shown on our pricing. Every plan includes all of Copytone. If you need more sites or people, move to a larger plan. Each site is one website: you can change it once in 30 days. When someone leaves your team, their place frees a week later. To move to a smaller plan, your sites and people must first fit it.

Build your studio again whenever your website or reviews change. If automated or constant rebuilding puts the service at risk for other customers, we may limit it, and we tell you why.

The free trial

Your organisation's first plan starts with a free trial, for the number of days shown before you pay. Stripe takes your card details at the start, and charges nothing during the trial.

If you cancel before the trial ends, you pay nothing. If you do not cancel, the subscription starts when the trial ends, and Stripe takes the first payment then. One free trial per person, per organisation, per website and per card, and you confirm your email address before it starts. If the card has had a free trial with us before, the plan starts and is paid for straight away, and we tell you on the billing page.

Subscription and payment

You buy Copytone online, through Stripe, monthly or yearly. The price and the billing period are shown before you pay. There is no setup fee.

Stripe takes payment when the subscription starts, and again each time it renews. Your subscription renews automatically until you cancel. We do not take payment by invoice.

Prices are in US dollars and do not include VAT or sales tax. Where tax applies, you account for it yourself.

Checkout may offer to charge you in your own currency. If you accept, Stripe sets the exchange rate, which includes a conversion fee, and converts each renewal again at that day's rate, so the amount can change a little from one payment to the next. You can choose to pay in US dollars instead.

If we change the price of your plan, we tell you before the new price applies. It starts at a renewal, never part way through a period you have paid for, so you can cancel before it does.

Cancelling

You can cancel at any time from your billing page, which Stripe runs. Your subscription stays active until the end of the period you have paid for, then stops. It does not renew.

When the subscription ends, we delete your organisation's data as our data processing agreement sets out. You can ask us for a copy before then.

Refunds

We do not refund part of a billing period when you cancel. If Copytone does not work as these terms describe and we cannot put it right, email us and we refund what you paid for the time it did not work.

What you upload

You keep ownership of everything you upload. You give us permission to store it, process it and show it to your team, only to run Copytone for you. We do not use it to train AI models, and we do not sell it.

In the studio, before anything uploads, the person uploading ticks this box: “We have the right to share these files with Copytone for analysis.” We keep a record of who ticked it and when.

The free brand voice checker has no box to tick. Pasting reviews or testimonials into it confirms that you have the right to share them with Copytone for this use. Nothing pasted there is kept.

You promise that:

• you own everything you upload, or have the right to share it with us for this use
• you gathered your customers' words lawfully, through each platform's own export or another route its terms allow
• you have a lawful basis, under the data protection laws that apply to you, for us to process any personal data in your uploads, including a condition for any health data, and you have told people what the law says you must tell them
• you do not upload protected health information covered by the US HIPAA rules. Copytone is not built for it and does not sign business associate agreements
• nothing you upload breaks the law, a duty of confidence or anyone's rights

If any of this stops being true, stop uploading and tell us. We may remove anything that breaks these promises.

If someone makes a claim against us because something you uploaded broke these promises, you cover our reasonable costs of dealing with that claim. We tell you about the claim promptly, and let you take part in how it is handled.

How Copytone may be used

Use Copytone to check and improve your organisation's own copy.

• Do not ask Copytone to read a website that your organisation does not run, unless you have permission to have it checked.
• Do not upload anything taken from behind a login, a paywall or a bot check, or scraped from a site whose terms do not allow it.
• Do not upload content you have no right to share, such as another company's confidential material.
• Do not upload messages sent to individual people with their personal details still in them. Upload the template, or take the details out first.
• Do not try to reach another customer's data, get around our security, or overload Copytone.
• Do not share access with anyone outside your team, or resell Copytone.
• Do not use Copytone to break the law or anyone's rights.

We may suspend access if these rules are broken. Where we can, we tell you first and give you the chance to put it right.

Suggestions are suggestions

Copytone writes suggestions and starting points. It does not write your final copy. A person on your team decides whether to use each one, and applies it.

Verdicts and counts come from fixed checks, and starting points are written by an AI model. Either can be wrong, out of date or unsuitable for your readers. Check every sentence before you use it, including any facts, claims and prices in it.

You are responsible for the copy you use, and for checking it before you do.

No promise of compliance or approval

Copytone does not approve copy. It does not check that copy meets the law, an advertising code such as the CAP Code, or the rules of any regulator.

A verdict says how a sentence reads against your customers' words, your rules and plain English. It does not say whether the sentence is allowed. Copytone checks your copy for the banned claims you give it, sentence by sentence. It does not look for claims that are not on your list.

You remain responsible for making sure your copy is lawful, and for any review or approval it needs. Do not describe Copytone, or copy checked with it, as approved or compliant.

Our part

We provide Copytone with reasonable care and skill, and we handle your data as our data processing agreement sets out.

We work to keep Copytone running, but we cannot promise it will always be available or free of errors. Some websites block automated visits, so Copytone may not be able to read every page.

Liability

Nothing in these terms limits any liability that the law does not allow to be limited.

Apart from that, and as far as the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business or goodwill. We are not liable for any complaint, fine or regulatory action about copy you chose to use.

Our total liability to you, for everything arising in any 12 months, is limited to what you paid us for Copytone in the 12 months before the event that caused the claim.

Suspending or ending access

We may suspend or end your subscription if you seriously break these terms, or if a payment fails and is not put right. Where we can, we tell you first and give you time to fix it.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change matters, we email account owners before it takes effect. If you do not agree, you can cancel before it applies. Using Copytone after that date means you accept the new terms.

Law and disputes

These terms, and any dispute about them, are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales decide any dispute.

Contact

Questions about these terms: email support@copytone.co.