title: Terms of Service #

Acceptance of these Terms of Service is required for all players logging on to this edition of The Lacuna Expanse. As such, all players should expect to abide by the terms explained below. The Rules are a supplement to these Terms of Service, and in the event that these guidelines and the Terms of Service disagree, the Terms of Service take precedence.

The detailed Terms of Service below represent an agreement between TLE Community, the volunteer project that operates this edition of The Lacuna Expanse, and the users of this service, defining the nature of the service the project provides.

The Lacuna Expanse is the original commercial game, developed and published by JT Smith, Plainblack, Lacuna Expanse Corp., and their contributors. This edition of the game is operated by TLE Community, a group of unpaid volunteer open-source contributors. TLE Community is not a registered company and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by JT Smith, Plainblack, Lacuna Expanse Corp., or any of the original creators. TLE Community claims no ownership of, and asserts no trademark or other rights in, "The Lacuna Expanse", "Lacuna Expanse Corp", or any related names, logos, or marks; all such rights remain with their respective owners. References to the original creators are for attribution only. This document was adapted from the original Lacuna Expanse Corp. terms; "Lacuna Expanse Corp" as the contracting party has been replaced by "TLE Community" except where the name refers to the original game, its creators, or the in-game entity of the same name.

Changes to the Terms of Service #

TLE Community may update these terms of service. We will notify you about significant changes by placing a prominent link on our site.

TLE Community Terms of Service #

By registering and creating an account you agree to comply with all these terms. If you do not agree with these terms, do not create an account and do not continue to use the tlecommunity.com site or other TLE Community sites.

1. Services. This edition of The Lacuna Expanse is an internet service that allows you to play an online game. In addition the site provides forums and other game related services. The web site, game, and other services are collectively referred to as the Service.
2. Age Requirement. The Lacuna Expanse is a game intended for players of all ages. It includes certain limitations on language and game play in line with that target audience. Players younger than 18 must seek their parent's permission before playing The Lacuna Expanse. By agreeing to the Terms of Service, players that are under 18 affirm that they have sought and received permission to play from their parent or legal guardian.
3. Access. You must have access to the Internet in order to use the Service. It is your responsibility to select, obtain and pay for any equipment or services necessary for access.
4. Registration. If you accept the terms, TLE Community will process your registration form and establish a user account. You must select a username to identify you to TLE Community and other users of the site. You may not select as your username the name of another living person (unless it is also your name), a name for the purpose of fraud or disparagement, or a name that violates any third party's trademark right, copyright, or other proprietary right, or which TLE Community deems in its sole discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive. TLE Community reserves the right to delete any vulgar or otherwise offensive username, or to require you to change your username. You must also select a password for your account. TLE Community recommends that you choose a password with letters and numbers, and do not use your username as your password. The registration form will ask you for other information about yourself ("Registration Data") which you represent and warrant is at all times true, accurate, current and complete, and which you agree to update in order to maintain as such. If you breach this representation, or TLE Community has reasonable grounds to suspect that you have, TLE Community has the right upon notice to suspend or terminate your account and this agreement and to refuse your current or future use of the Service (or any portion thereof).
5. License. Subject to all of the Terms, TLE Community hereby grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access the Site and to use the Service only on the Site solely for your personal entertainment purposes. TLE Community may revoke this license at any time and for any reason. Specifically if you breach the terms of service we will ban your account.
6. Restrictions. You agree not to do any of the following prohibited actions:
   1. reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, translate, modify, adapt, create derivative works from, deconstruct, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble in any manner the Service or any portion thereof, including but not limited to any character, graphic, associated software or proprietary communications protocol used by the software or any utilities, applications, emulators or tools derived therefrom except as authorized through the official TLE Community developer program;
   2. permit any other person (including but not limited to a former member whose account TLE Community has terminated) to access the Service, or create or provide any other means through which the Games may be played by anyone besides you (e.g., through server emulators);
   3. upload, post, email, link to, advertise or otherwise transmit through the Service any material that (i) is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable; (ii) you do not have a right to transmit under any law or contractual or fiduciary relationship (e.g., inside information, proprietary information from an employer or confidential information subject to a nondisclosure agreement); (iii) infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other party's proprietary rights; (iv) is unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional material, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation; or (v) contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
   4. harm minors in any way;
   5. impersonate another user or administrator;
   6. forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any materials you or another party transmit through the Service;
   7. interfere with or disrupt the Services or servers or networks connected to the Services, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Services;
   8. intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including, but not limited to, regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, any rules of any national or other securities exchange, including, without limitation, the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ, and any regulations having the force of law;
   9. "stalk" or otherwise harass another; or
   10. collect or store personal data about another member without the express permission of such member.
   11. reveal personal data about another member without the express permission of such member.
   12. modify any files or use any game hacking/altering/cheating software or tools, including scripting or macroing software, or attempt to disassemble the game client and/or decipher the data transmissions between the client and server except as permitted through the official TLE Community developer program. These activities will result in immediate termination of the Player's Account and may subject you to civil and/or criminal liability.
   13. engage in any behaviour that is contrary to the 'spirit of the game' as defined by TLE Community in its sole discretion. This includes the use of multiple Empires or accounts to undermine or spy on competing parties, or to otherwise manipulate the game environment.
   14. play The Lacuna Expanse on any server or service that is not provided or authorised by TLE Community.
7. Content.
   1. Participatory Content. As part of our interactive approach, TLE Community provides you with certain opportunities to submit your own ideas, text, graphics, missions, buildings, plots, characters, feedback and other materials while you participate in the Games, forums, chat rooms and other activities in the Site or Services (collectively, "Participatory Content"). By submitting any Participatory Content, you represent and warrant that you are the owner of or have the right to post your Participatory Content, and your Participatory Content does not infringe the rights of any third party. You hereby grant TLE Community a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, distribute, publicly display and perform any and all of your Participatory Content in all media now known or later developed. You, and not TLE Community, are entirely responsible for all of your Participatory Content that you upload, post, email or otherwise transmit via the Site, Services or Games.
   2. Third Party Content. You acknowledge and agree that the Site, Services and Games contain materials owned by TLE Community, by the original creators of The Lacuna Expanse, and by their respective licensors (including other members), and you agree not to interfere with the copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary rights of such parties. You agree that these rights are valid and protected in all media existing now or later developed, and that except as is explicitly provided otherwise, your use of such materials shall be governed by the copyright laws of the United States and other applicable laws.
   3. Content Monitoring. As a matter of policy, TLE Community does not manually pre-screen or monitor the content that you or other members may post to the site or game. TLE Community does use automated mechanisms as necessary to filter obscene or vulgar language. TLE Community does reserve the right to monitor all such content, and reserves the right to remove without notice any and all content that TLE Community, in its sole discretion, finds offensive or otherwise objectionable. You are solely responsible, and bear the risk, for evaluating the accuracy, integrity, quality, completeness or utility of any content. TLE Community makes no representations or warranties about the content appearing in the Service. Under no circumstances will TLE Community be liable in any way for any content, including but not limited to, for any errors or omissions in any content, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any content posted, emailed or otherwise transmitted via the Service.
   4. Mature Content. While The Lacuna Expanse is intended to be a game for all ages, it does allow for user generated content both in the game and on the site. As a result parts of the Site, Services and/or Games contain adult or mature content that some users may consider offensive, indecent or objectionable. While TLE Community has established a list of restrictions and may in some instances choose to monitor and take action upon inappropriate gameplay, chat or links to the Services, it is possible that at any time there may be language or other material accessible on or through the Site, Services or Games that may be offensive or objectionable to some users.
   5. Content Transmission. You understand that the technical processing and transmission of the Services, including your Participatory Content and Public Content, may involve (i) transmissions over various networks; and (ii) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices.
   6. Links. The Site, Services and Games may provide links to other sites for your convenience only. TLE Community does not control, is not responsible for, does not necessarily endorse and makes no representation about the materials contained at any linked site. If you choose to visit any linked Sites, TLE Community recommends that you review the other site's terms of use. TLE Community is not responsible for webcasting or any other form of transmission received from any linked site.
   7. Names. In creating your empire in The Lacuna Expanse we ask that you use names appropriate for the setting. Do not use names that violate these terms, that might be offensive to other players, or that include copyright or trademark characters or products. Avoid names that are from or imply popular media and culture. TLE Community will arbitrarily change any names it considers unsuitable, or ban the accounts associated. Other than in these circumstances, names will not generally be changed.
   8. Auctions and Sales. It is against TLE Community policy to allow accounts, subscription time, or Essentia to be sold - for real money, on auction sites, or otherwise. We will ask auction sites to respect this policy. We only allow trading of in-game items within the game in exchange for other in-game items. We do not allow trades concerning any other game's accounts, items, or money to be performed, advertised, or solicited. We will terminate accounts that we believe are in violation of this policy.
   9. Essentia. It is against TLE Community's policy to allow players to trade Essentia on third-party sites. We will terminate accounts that we believe have violated this policy.
8. Idea submission policy. TLE Community and its contributors do not accept or consider unsolicited ideas, including but not limited to ideas for advertising campaigns, technology development or product names. Please do not send TLE Community or any of its contributors any unsolicited materials, including any artwork or demos. If any area of the site, services or games invites you to submit material, such as a portfolio URL for a job application, such submission shall not be deemed to be unsolicited for purposes of this section ("Idea Submission Policy"). The purpose of this policy is to avoid potential misunderstandings or disputes if TLE Community's projects or plans might seem similar to ideas submitted to TLE Community. Please note that any material you submit to TLE Community in any manner, aside from examples of prior work as part of a job application, will be deemed your "Participatory Content" and subject to the terms of participatory content in this agreement.
9. Your Account is Your Responsibility. You are solely responsible and entirely liable for all activities conducted through your account and/or your username, even if your account has been compromised through no fault of your own. TLE Community encourages you to maintain the confidentiality of your password, and reminds you that you do not have a license to let others use your account. You agree to notify TLE Community immediately in the event your password is lost, stolen, disclosed or compromised. It is not TLE Community's policy to ask for your password online, and TLE Community suggests that you never respond to an on-line request for your password.
10. Privacy. You understand that you have no expectation of privacy with respect to your use of the Site, Services or Games, and that all communications made by or received from you may be monitored, preserved and disclosed by TLE Community. You hereby consent to the extraction of hardware system profile data and any data related to operation of the software from any computer that logs on to the Site, Services or Games using your account. You acknowledge and agree that TLE Community will report to law enforcement authorities any actions which may be considered illegal, as well as any reports it receives of such conduct. TLE Community will cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies in any investigation of alleged illegal activity. Specifically, TLE Community may disclose information about you or your Participatory Content if TLE Community has the good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce the Terms; (c) respond to claims that any your Participatory Content violates the rights of a third party; or (d) protect the rights, property or safety of TLE Community, its members or the public. These Terms are also subject to TLE Community's general Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by this reference as if set out in full.
11. Charges for Service. TLE Community operates this edition of The Lacuna Expanse on a non-commercial, volunteer basis. It does not charge for the game, for the in-game Essentia currency, or for any "Premium Services", and collects no fees of any kind.
12. International Use. Recognizing the global nature of the Internet, you agree to comply with all local rules regarding online conduct and acceptable content. Specifically, you agree to comply with all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside.
13. Ownership. TLE Community and its contributors retain all right, title and interest in the code and content they create for this edition, except to the extent of the licenses granted to you hereunder. "The Lacuna Expanse", "Lacuna Expanse Corp", and related names and logos are the property of their respective owners. TLE Community claims no ownership of these marks and uses them only to identify the original game.
14. Disclaimer of Warranty. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, TLE COMMUNITY AND ITS CONTRIBUTORS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. TLE COMMUNITY PROVIDES THE SITE, SERVICES AND GAMES (AND ANY RELATED SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE USED OR PROVIDED BY TLE COMMUNITY IN CONNECTION THEREWITH OR ANY CONTENT INCLUDED THEREIN) "AS IS" AND ON AN "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, AND MAKES NO WARRANTY OF PERFORMANCE OR QUALITY OR THAT THE SITE, SERVICES OR GAMES WILL BE ERROR-FREE OR UNINTERRUPTED. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT PERMIT THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SUCH EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
15. Limitation of Liability. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY, THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF TLE COMMUNITY AND ITS CONTRIBUTORS TO YOU ARISING FROM OR IN RELATION TO THIS AGREEMENT, THE SITE, SERVICES OR GAMES SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. TLE COMMUNITY COLLECTS NO FEES, SO NO PAYMENT-BASED LIABILITY CAP APPLIES. THE FOREGOING LIMITATION SHALL NOT APPLY TO DAMAGES ARISING FROM DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY TO PERSONAL OR TANGIBLE PROPERTY IN ANY JURISDICTION WHERE SUCH LIMITATION IS PROHIBITED BY LAW.
16. Consequential Damages. IN NO EVENT WILL TLE COMMUNITY OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY LOSS OF USE OR COSTS OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, HOWEVER CAUSED, WHETHER FOR BREACH OF REPUDIATION OF CONTRACT, TORT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER OR NOT TLE COMMUNITY OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS WERE ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LOSS OR DAMAGES AND NOTWITHSTANDING THE FAILURE OF ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF ANY LIMITED REMEDY STATED HEREIN. IN JURISDICTIONS THAT DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, THE LIABILITY OF TLE COMMUNITY AND ITS CONTRIBUTORS IS LIMITED TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
17. Indemnification. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless TLE Community and its contributors from all liabilities, claims and expenses, including attorneys' fees, arising from or related to your breach of this Agreement or portion hereof, your Participatory Content or Public Content or any act or omission by you relating the Site, Services or Games. TLE Community reserves the right to assume its own defense and/or control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you hereunder.
18. Termination. Either you or TLE Community may terminate your account and this agreement upon notice at any time without further obligation to the other. Further, TLE Community reserves the right to terminate the Site, Services and/or Games, or any part thereof, at any time without notice and without further obligation to you. TLE Community collects no fees, so no refund or proration of fees can arise. UPON TERMINATION OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOUR ACCESS PRIVILEGES TO THE SITE, SERVICES AND GAMES WILL TERMINATE. A member whose account TLE Community has terminated may not access the Site, Services or Games in any manner or for any reason without TLE Community's express, prior, written permission. Termination of this agreement shall have no effect on any obligation accrued prior to the effective date of termination. The following sections shall survive termination: Participatory Content, Third Party Content, Idea Submission Policy, Disclaimer of Warranty, Consequential Damages, Indemnification, Termination, Amendment, Reservation of Rights, and General Provisions.
19. Amendment. TLE Community may amend the Terms in its sole discretion at any time by posting revised Terms on the Site, and you agree to regularly review the Terms. If any such revision is unacceptable to you, you may terminate your account and this agreement as provided in "Termination". Your continued access and use of the Site, Services and/or Games seven (7) days after posting of the revised Terms shall constitute your acceptance of the same. Except as expressly set forth herein, the Terms may not otherwise be modified or amended.
20. Reservation of Rights. TLE Community hereby reserves any rights not expressly granted herein.
21. General Provisions. You may not sublicense, rent, sell, assign or otherwise transfer the rights or obligations granted to you in this agreement, and any such attempted transfer shall be void. If any provision of this agreement is held to be unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable, and such decision shall not affect the enforceability of: (i) such provision under other circumstances, or (ii) the remaining provisions hereof under all circumstances. TLE Community's failure to enforce at any time any provision of this agreement shall in no way be construed to be a present or future waiver of such provision, nor in any way affect the right of any party to enforce each and every such provision thereafter. The express waiver by TLE Community of any provision, condition or requirement of this agreement shall not constitute a waiver of any future obligation to comply with such provision, condition or requirement. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, no default, delay or failure to perform on the part of TLE Community shall be considered a breach of this agreement if such default, delay or failure to perform is shown to be due to causes beyond TLE Community's reasonable control. This agreement is governed by the laws applicable where the TLE Community project maintainers are located, and you agree to submit to the courts of that jurisdiction for the resolution of any dispute arising from or related to this agreement. All notices to TLE Community should be sent to natalie@thecommunity.com or raised as an issue at https://tangled.org/tlecommunity.com/server. TLE Community may give notice to you at the e-mail address you provide in the Registration Data. This agreement represents the entire agreement between you and TLE Community with respect to the subject matter referenced herein.