Terms of Service & Legal

1. User-Generated Content (UGC) & Liability

AfterdarkPub is a platform and service provider. We provide the tools for authors to publish and share their work. By uploading content to our platform, you retain all ownership and copyrights to your original work.

However, you are solely legally responsible for the content you post. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, safety, or legality of any user-generated content. We reserve the right to remove any content or terminate any account that violates our community guidelines, at our sole discretion, without prior notice.

2. The "Dual Library System" & Content Policies

To ensure a safe, appropriate environment for general audiences and to maintain strict legal compliance with our payment processors, we operate on a "Dual Library System" architecture. This system strictly and technically partitions content across two isolated domains:

• TxtPub (Clean Domain): This domain is strictly for general audiences. Absolutely no explicit sexual content, erotica, or extreme/gratuitous gore is permitted.
• AfterdarkPub (Mature Domain): This domain allows for explicit adult themes, erotica, and intense content. You must be at least 18 years of age (or the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction) to access, read, or publish content on AfterdarkPub.

Creator Responsibility & Merchant Compliance: Authors must explicitly agree to the respective rules for each domain before publishing. Misclassifying 18+ content onto the clean TxtPub domain, attempting to circumvent the Dual Library System, or publishing illegal, non-consensual, or otherwise prohibited content on either domain is a direct violation of our merchant agreements. Such actions will result in immediate account termination, a permanent ban, and the forfeiture of any accrued memberships or utility credits. We reserve the right to re-classify or remove content at our sole discretion.

3. Purchases, Ink & Refunds

Our platform offers virtual utility credits ("Ink") and subscription-based Support Badges via our payment processor, Stripe. Ink is a platform-wide utility credit designed to be used across the entire ecosystem. Ink has no real-world cash value, cannot be exchanged for legal tender, and cannot be cashed out.

All purchases of Ink and Support Badges are final and non-refundable, except where strictly required by local law. If an account is terminated for violating these Terms, any remaining Ink or active subscriptions are immediately forfeit.

4. DMCA & Copyright Policy

We respect the intellectual property rights of others. We comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and will promptly remove material that infringes on another's copyright when properly notified.

If you believe your copyrighted work has been uploaded without your permission, please submit a formal DMCA takedown notice to our designated copyright agent at: copyright@txtpub.org.

Your notice must include:

• A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner.
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed.
• The exact URL of the infringing material.
• Your contact information (email address and physical address).
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material is not authorized.

5. Cookies & Privacy

We use cookies—small text files saved to your device—to make the platform function securely and efficiently. We do not use cookies to track your activity across the internet or sell your data to advertisers.

We use cookies strictly for the following essential purposes:

• Authentication & Security: To keep you securely logged in as you navigate between pages and to protect your account from unauthorized access.
• Platform Functionality: To remember your site preferences (such as UI themes or reading progress).
• Payment Processing: Our payment provider, Stripe, uses strictly necessary cookies for fraud prevention and to securely process transactions.

You can choose to disable cookies through your browser settings; however, please note that doing so will break essential features of the site, including your ability to log in, read content, or access your Author Dashboard.

6. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in our platform or legal requirements. We will notify users of significant changes, but it is your responsibility to review this page periodically. Continued use of the platform after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms.