Lou Terms of Service

Who may use Lou

You must be at least 13 years old to use Lou. If the law where you live requires a higher minimum age or parental consent, you must satisfy that requirement. You may use Lou only if you can legally enter into these Terms.

The service

Lou lets you find, follow, download, and play podcasts; save listening activity and preferences; and request automated detection and skipping of ad breaks. Features may change as the service is developed, and some features depend on your device, network, podcast publisher, or third-party services.

Accounts

Lou may create a guest account after you accept the welcome notice. You can later add a sign-in method to back up that account. You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping your credentials and verification codes secure. Tell us promptly at support@withlou.co if you believe someone has accessed your account without permission.

You can delete a guest or backed-up account in Settings. Deletion is subject to the limited retention described in our Privacy Policy.

Audio and information you provide

You keep any rights you have in information you provide to Lou. To operate the service, you give Lou a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive license to host, copy, transmit, process, transcribe, and analyze that information and audio you ask Lou to scan. This license is only for providing, securing, maintaining, and improving Lou, and ends when the material is no longer needed for those purposes, subject to normal backup, security, and legal retention.

You may submit or direct Lou to process audio only when you have the right to do so. Do not upload unlawful, infringing, malicious, or privacy-violating material. Lou may remove material or restrict processing when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect the service, or respect third-party rights.

Acceptable use

You may not:

• use Lou in violation of law or another person's rights;
• interfere with, overload, probe, or bypass Lou's security or usage limits;
• use automated means to scrape or access Lou except through interfaces we provide;
• introduce malware or attempt unauthorized access to accounts, systems, or data;
• resell or commercially exploit the service without our written permission.

Podcasts and third-party services

Podcast feeds, artwork, descriptions, and audio are provided by publishers and other third parties, not by Lou. Their terms may apply to your access and use. Lou does not control or endorse that content and is not responsible for its availability, accuracy, or legality. Publishers may change or remove content at any time.

Automated results

Ad detection is automated and may miss ads, identify non-ad audio, or place skip boundaries incorrectly. You can turn automatic skipping off in Settings. Lou does not guarantee that any episode will be scanned or that results will be complete or accurate.

Lou's rights

Lou and its software, design, branding, and service features are protected by intellectual-property laws. Except for the limited right to use the service under these Terms and Apple's applicable license agreement, no rights are transferred to you. Feedback may be used without restriction or compensation to you.

App Store license

If you download Lou from Apple's App Store, your license to the app is also governed by Apple's Standard End User License Agreement. These Terms govern Lou's services and supplement that license.

Suspension and termination

You may stop using Lou and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access if you materially breach these Terms, create risk or legal exposure, or threaten the security or operation of Lou. When practical, we will give notice and an opportunity to address the issue.

Service changes

Lou may add, change, suspend, or discontinue features. We will try to provide reasonable notice before a material change that substantially reduces the service, but Lou may act immediately for security, legal, or operational reasons.

Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Lou is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant uninterrupted or error-free operation, preservation of data, or the accuracy of podcast metadata or automated results. Nothing in these Terms limits rights that cannot lawfully be waived.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Lou will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or business interruption arising from the service. Lou's total liability for all claims relating to the service will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid Lou in the 12 months before the claim or $50. These limits do not apply where prohibited by law.

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of California, excluding its conflict-of-laws rules. Courts located in California will have jurisdiction, except where the law where you live gives you the right to bring a claim elsewhere or requires different governing law. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as Lou changes. We will update the effective date and provide additional notice when a change is material. Your continued use after the updated Terms take effect means you accept them; if you do not agree, stop using Lou and delete your account.

Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to support@withlou.co or through Lou Support.