Terms of Service

1. Who these terms are with

Open America (openamerica.io) is an independent civic-technology project operated by Fermin F. Garcia IV ("we", "us", "the project"). These Terms of Service govern your access to and use of the website, API, newsletter, AI letter feature, and any other service we make available under the openamerica.io domain (collectively, "the Service"). When you use the Service, you agree to be bound by these terms.

2. Who can use the Service

You may use the Service if you are at least 13 years old. If you are between 13 and 18, you confirm you have a parent or guardian's permission. Some features (paid subscriptions, the AI letter feature) may have higher age requirements that we'll surface at the point of use.

You agree to provide accurate information when you create an account, and to keep your login credentials secure. You're responsible for activity that happens under your account.

3. What we provide, and what we don't promise

We aggregate and republish primary-source legislative data from congress.gov, clerk.house.gov, senate.gov, and similar government sources. We make a best-effort to surface that data accurately and timely, but:

• The underlying data may contain errors, delays, or omissions originating from the upstream source.
• We add structural normalization, plain-English summaries, and AI-assisted features. These layers may contain errors of our own.
• Nothing on this Service is legal advice. Bill summaries are informational, not authoritative. If a decision matters, verify against the primary source.
• AI-generated letters are drafts. Review them before sending. We are not responsible for content you choose to send under your own name.

4. What you can do

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, revocable license to:

• Browse the Service for personal, educational, journalistic, advocacy, or research use.
• Quote, cite, link to, and share material we publish.
• Use the public API within its documented rate limits.
• Generate AI letters using the feature under the additional terms at /accounts/letter/terms/.

5. What you may not do

You agree not to:

• Scrape, crawl, or automate access in a way that degrades service for other users or exceeds posted rate limits.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or circumvent technical protections on the Service.
• Use the Service to harass, threaten, or defame anyone, including elected officials, their staff, or other users.
• Misuse the AI letter feature (see the AI letter terms).
• Use the Service to violate any law, infringe any third party's rights, or facilitate any of the above.
• Repackage a live feed as your own API, or resell a feed as it stands, without a written agreement. Everything else about reusing the data, including paid use, is covered by the data-use statement in section 15.

Full prohibited-use rules live in our Acceptable Use Policy, which is incorporated into these terms.

6. Accounts and paid plans

Free accounts (Citizen tier) require an email address. Paid subscriptions (Member, Pro, Newsroom) are processed through Stripe; their separate terms apply to payment processing.

When paid plans are active, you can cancel any time from your billing portal. We offer a refund within 30 days of payment, no questions asked. After 30 days, charges are non-refundable except where required by law.

We may close an account that materially violates these terms or our Acceptable Use Policy. We aim to give notice and reason where the violation isn't urgent.

7. Your content

When you submit content to the Service (including letter topics, personal notes, donation messages, displayed supporter name, watchlist items, support messages), you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, and (where you've opted in publicly, e.g., the Supporters page) display that content for the purpose of operating the Service.

You keep ownership of your content. You can request deletion of any content you submitted by emailing the address in section 14.

8. Intellectual property

Federal legislative data we republish is public-domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. We don't claim copyright on it.

Our own contributions to the Service (site design, plain-English summaries we wrote, AI-feature prompts, the underlying code, our trademarks ("Open America"), and similar) are owned by us or our licensors. You may use them as documented above; otherwise, all rights are reserved.

See our DMCA Policy if you believe content on the Service infringes your rights.

9. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE.

We do not warrant that the data is accurate, complete, or up-to-date. You agree that any reliance on the Service is at your sole risk.

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE OPERATOR OF OPEN AMERICA WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS OR REVENUES, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE.

Our total liability to you for any claim arising out of or relating to these terms or the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100).

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the operator of Open America from any claim, demand, loss, or damages (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to (a) your use of the Service, (b) your violation of these terms, or (c) your violation of any third party's rights.

12. Changes and termination

We may change these terms from time to time. If we make a material change, we'll surface notice on the site at least 14 days before the change takes effect. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the change.

You may stop using the Service at any time by closing your account from your account settings. We may suspend or terminate access at our discretion, with or without notice, for any reason or no reason, including a violation of these terms.

13. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Bexar County, Texas, and you consent to that jurisdiction.

14. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email [email protected].

15. Data use

This statement is the same text that appears on the API page and the methodology page. Where it and section 5 both speak, this section is the more specific.