Terms of Service

1. Introduction

Welcome to Common Identity ("we," "us," or "our"). Common Identity provides an invisible watermarking and blockchain-based registration service (the "Service") that helps creators prove ownership of their images and videos.

By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service. These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Common Identity.

Please also review our Privacy Policy, which describes how we handle your data.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years of age to use the Service. If you are under 18, you represent that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms on your behalf.

By using the Service, you represent and warrant that you have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement and that your use of the Service complies with all applicable laws and regulations.

3. Account & Authentication

The Service uses wallet-based authentication provided by Privy. When you sign in, a blockchain wallet is created or linked on your behalf. You are solely responsible for maintaining the security of your authentication credentials and any devices used to access your account.

You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to or use of your account. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to safeguard your account access.

4. The Service

Common Identity provides the following capabilities:

• Invisible watermarking — embedding an imperceptible digital watermark into your images and videos using neural network technology.
• Blockchain registration — recording a cryptographic hash of your watermarked content on a public blockchain to create a timestamped, immutable proof of registration.
• Verification — detecting watermarks in images and videos and cross-referencing them against blockchain records to confirm registration.
• Evidence reports — generating cryptographically signed PDF reports that document ownership verification results, for use in platform takedown requests, DMCA notices, or legal proceedings.

The Service is designed to assist with ownership provenance and does not constitute legal proof of copyright. Registration on the blockchain is evidence of when content was submitted, not a guarantee of original authorship. For video watermarking, your video is temporarily stored in Google Cloud Storage during processing and automatically deleted within 24 hours.

5. Your Content

You retain full intellectual property ownership of all images, videos, and other content you upload to the Service. We do not claim any ownership rights over your content.

By using the Service, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to process your images and videos solely for the purpose of providing the Service — specifically, to embed watermarks, generate cryptographic hashes, temporarily store files during processing, and store metadata necessary for verification. We do not use your content for training AI models or any other purpose.

You represent and warrant that you own or have the necessary rights to all content you upload, and that your content does not infringe on the intellectual property rights of any third party.

6. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• Upload, watermark, or register content that is illegal under applicable law.
• Upload child sexual abuse material (CSAM). We report all detected CSAM to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and relevant law enforcement.
• Impersonate any person or entity, or falsely claim ownership of content you did not create.
• Upload content that constitutes harassment, threats, or incitement to violence.
• Use the Service for spam, phishing, or distributing malware.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the watermarking algorithms or models used by the Service.
• Circumvent rate limits, access controls, or other security measures.
• Use automated scripts or bots to access the Service without our prior written consent.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to the Service if we reasonably believe you have violated these restrictions.

7. Blockchain Immutability

On-chain registrations are permanent and cannot be deleted, modified, or reversed. Once an image hash is recorded on the blockchain, it becomes part of the public, immutable ledger. Neither Common Identity nor any other party can remove or alter this record.

By registering an image on-chain, you acknowledge and accept that:

• The registration transaction (including your wallet address, image hash, and timestamp) is permanently visible on the public blockchain.
• You cannot request deletion of on-chain data, even under data protection regulations such as GDPR's right to erasure.
• This permanence is a core feature of blockchain-based provenance and is not a limitation we can work around.

8. Watermark Limitations

Our watermarking technology is designed to be robust against common transformations (compression, resizing, screenshots, video re-encoding). However, we do not guarantee that watermarks will survive all possible modifications, including but not limited to:

• Aggressive cropping or extreme resolution reduction.
• Heavy image editing, compositing, or applying destructive filters.
• Re-creation of the image (e.g., photographing a screen, tracing, or re-drawing).
• Adversarial attacks specifically targeting the watermark.

The watermarking service is provided on an "as-is" basis. We do not warrant that the watermark will be detectable in all circumstances or that verification results will be error-free.

9. Fees & Payments

The Service is currently offered free of charge. Blockchain transaction fees (gas fees) for image registration are sponsored by Common Identity at this time.

We reserve the right to introduce paid tiers, usage limits, or fees in the future. If we do, we will provide reasonable advance notice and you will have the opportunity to accept or decline the new pricing before being charged.

10. DMCA & Takedown

We respect the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that content registered through our Service infringes your copyright, you may submit a takedown notice to our designated agent at [email protected] with the following information:

• Identification of the copyrighted work you believe is infringed.
• Identification of the material you believe is infringing, including sufficient detail to locate it.
• Your contact information (name, address, phone number, email).
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on their behalf.
• Your physical or electronic signature.

Important limitation: We can remove off-chain data (such as IPFS-pinned metadata or account associations) in response to valid takedown requests. However, on-chain blockchain records cannot be deleted or modified by anyone, including Common Identity. See Section 7 (Blockchain Immutability) for details.

Evidence Reports

The Service allows you to generate cryptographically signed evidence reports ("Reports") that document the results of watermark verification. By generating a Report, you acknowledge and agree to the following:

• Accuracy: You are solely responsible for the accuracy of all information you provide during report generation, including contact information, infringement details, and any declarations.
• DMCA declarations: If you include a DMCA declaration in a Report, you acknowledge that it constitutes a legal statement made under penalty of perjury under 17 U.S.C. 512(f). Filing a false DMCA notice may result in legal liability.
• Cryptographic signing: Reports are cryptographically signed at the time of generation and cannot be altered afterward. Anyone with your report ID can verify whether a Report has been tampered with.
• Tool provider, not legal counsel: Common Identity provides report generation as a tool to help you document ownership claims. We are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice. Reports do not constitute legal opinions, and you should consult an attorney for legal guidance.
• Report metadata: We store minimal metadata about generated Reports (report ID, type, beacon ID, cryptographic hash, and signature) for up to 1 year to enable third-party verification. We do not store the Report PDF or any personal information you enter during report generation (such as your name, address, or phone number). The PDF is generated locally in your browser.

11. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at our sole discretion, with or without notice, for any reason, including but not limited to violation of these Terms.

Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately. However, the following survive termination:

• All on-chain blockchain registrations remain permanent and publicly accessible.
• Watermarks embedded in images you have already downloaded persist within those files.
• Sections 5 (Your Content), 7 (Blockchain Immutability), 12 (Disclaimer of Warranties), 13 (Limitation of Liability), and 14 (Governing Law) survive termination.

12. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure; that watermarks will be detectable after all possible image transformations; or that blockchain registrations constitute legal proof of copyright ownership.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Common Identity shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, data, use, or goodwill, arising out of or related to your use of the Service.

Our total aggregate liability for any claims arising from or related to the Service shall not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim, or (b) one hundred US dollars ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In such jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the fullest extent permitted by law.

14. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any disputes arising under these Terms shall be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Delaware.

15. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page and, where practicable, notify you via email or an in-app notice.

Your continued use of the Service after any changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service.

16. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us at [email protected].