Terms of Service

Version: 2026-04-23.1 · Effective: April 23, 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Lantern LLC ("Lantern", "we", "us") governing your access to and use of the Lantern website (lantern-us.com), API (api.lantern-us.com), and browser extension (collectively, the "Service"). You accept these Terms by ticking the acceptance box at account creation, and by continuing to use the Service thereafter. If you do not agree, do not create an account or use the Service. These Terms incorporate our Privacy Policy and DMCA policy.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. At signup you affirm you meet this minimum age. We do not knowingly permit accounts for users under 13 and will terminate any account we discover belongs to a user under that age.

2. Your account

  • You are responsible for the confidentiality of your credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Keep your email current so account-recovery and security notices reach you.
  • You may not sell, transfer, or share your account. One account per person.
  • We may suspend or terminate your account for material violation of these Terms, suspected fraud, repeated registration of infringing work, or other conduct that threatens the integrity of the Service or other users.

3. Registering work

  • You represent and warrant that, for each work you register, you are either the author or have the legal right to register it on behalf of the author. At registration you affirm this explicitly.
  • Registering a work you did not create, or which you do not have the right to register, is a material breach of these Terms and a violation of federal and state law. We will remove records that misrepresent authorship.
  • You keep ownership of your work. Lantern never claims copyright. Registration stores a cryptographic hash, mathematical descriptors for similarity matching, and metadata (title, description, source URL, timestamps) on a public blockchain and in our database.
  • You may not register illegal content, including content that infringes copyright, depicts minors in sexual contexts, or otherwise violates United States law. We will remove such content and, where required by law, report it.

4. Our obligations

  • We operate the Service in good faith.
  • We protect your account data as described in our Privacy Policy.
  • We use only the third-party services listed on our Subprocessors page, and update that page when we add or remove any.
  • We respond to valid copyright takedown notices under the procedure on our DMCA page.
  • We notify registered users by email of material changes to these Terms or our Privacy Policy, and ask you to re-accept the new version before continued use.

5. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, LANTERN DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. A Lantern record is evidence of authorship at a point in time; it is not a guarantee of legal enforceability in any particular jurisdiction and does not itself create or transfer any copyright, trademark, or other intellectual-property right.

6. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, LANTERN AND ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100). Some jurisdictions do not allow these limitations; if you are in such a jurisdiction, some of the above may not apply to you.

7. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Lantern LLC and its officers, employees, and agents from any claim, liability, loss, damage, and expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from (a) your use of the Service, (b) content you register, (c) your violation of these Terms, or (d) your violation of any third-party right, including any copyright, trademark, privacy, or publicity right.

8. Blockchain records are permanent

Lantern records are anchored to the Base blockchain, a public ledger. Once a record is written on-chain, that record is permanent and cannot be deleted by us or anyone else. You can revoke a registration (mark it as no longer valid), and the chain will reflect the revocation, but the historical record remains visible on the chain. Do not register anything you would need to have cryptographically removed.

9. Copyright and DMCA

Lantern complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512. If you believe a registration on Lantern infringes a copyright you own or are authorized to represent, follow the procedure on ourDMCA page. Users who repeatedly register work they do not have authorship rights to will have their accounts terminated.

10. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising from these Terms or the Service shall be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts, except where applicable law provides a different forum that cannot be contractually waived.

11. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Substantive changes will be accompanied by a new Version string (currently 2026-04-23.1). Registered users will be asked to affirmatively re-accept any new version before continued use of the Service. If you do not accept the new version, you may stop using the Service; existing on-chain registrations remain yours.

12. Contact

Legal and Terms questions: contact@lantern-us.com.

This document reflects Lantern's current operational practices and obligations. It will be revised as the Service matures; each revision carries a new Version string so you can see exactly what you accepted at signup.