Terms of Use / EULA

Version 0.1-draft · Effective 2026-04-29

End User License Agreement & Terms of Use — FishFinder Engine™

Status: DRAFT — for attorney review. Effective Date: [Effective Date] Version: 0.1-draft Operator (the "Company," "we," "us"): [Company Legal Name — likely Bit Shift LLC, a Minnesota limited liability company, doing business as FishFinder Engine] — Principal address: 14200 Natalie Rd NE, Prior Lake, MN 55372, USA — Contact: [Contact Email]

[Attorney Review Needed] Confirm correct legal entity name vs. the FishFinderEntityLLC reference in the project repo's AUDIT.md.

These End User License Agreement and Terms of Use (together, the "Terms") govern your access to and use of the FishFinder Engine website, the FishFinder Engine iOS application, the FishFinder Engine Apple Watch application, and any related services (collectively, the "Service").

By creating an account, signing in, paying for a subscription, downloading or launching the iOS or watchOS app, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

These Terms incorporate by reference the:

1. Acceptance & Eligibility

1.1 You must be at least 13 years old to create an account, and at least 18 (or the age of majority where you live) to subscribe to a paid plan or provide payment information. [Attorney Review Needed] to set the final age threshold and any COPPA/age-gating measures.

1.2 You represent that the information you provide at sign-up is accurate, that you have the legal authority to accept these Terms, and that your use of the Service does not violate any applicable law.

1.3 The Service is operated from the United States and is directed to users in the United States. We make no representation that the Service is appropriate or available in other jurisdictions. [Attorney Review Needed] to confirm.

2. Your Account

2.1 Authentication is provided through our identity sub-processor, Clerk (https://clerk.com). Your sign-in credentials, OAuth tokens, and any phone number you provide for SMS features are held by Clerk on our behalf, subject to its data processing terms.

2.2 You are responsible for safeguarding your account credentials and for any activity that occurs under your account. Notify us at [Contact Email] immediately if you suspect unauthorized use.

2.3 We may, at our discretion, manually adjust account tiers (for example, to issue promotional access, comp accounts, or grant trial extensions). When we do, our internal tier setting takes precedence over the tier last reported by the payment processor (i.e., tier_override is honored). You should not assume that any tier upgrade beyond what you have paid for is permanent.

2.4 We may suspend or terminate accounts as set out in §13.

3. The Service

3.1 The Service organizes publicly available state fisheries data (lake metadata, fish surveys, stocking records, water quality, fishing regulations, species lists, and similar materials) drawn from approximately 40+ U.S. state agencies, into a unified, searchable interface. The Service supplements that data with original analytics, charts, scoring, AI-generated summaries, AI follow-up Q&A, AI fishing guides, and AI natural-language search.

3.2 The raw factual data is sourced from public government records. The organization, normalization, scoring, charts, AI outputs, software, designs, and user-facing text are original to FishFinder Engine. See §10.

3.3 We do not represent that the Service is exhaustive. Coverage varies by state, by lake, and over time. Data may contain errors, omissions, parsing artifacts, unit-conversion errors, geocoding errors, or be out of date. You must verify any information you intend to act on with the official source. See the Data Accuracy Disclaimer.

4. Subscriptions, Trials, and Billing

4.1 The Service is offered in three tiers — Free, Pro ($9.99/month beta launch price), and Elite ($19.99/month beta launch price). The specific features included in each tier are described on https://fishfinderengine.com/pricing.

4.2 1-day Elite trial. Once per account, you may activate a one-day Elite trial without providing a credit card. When the trial expires, your account automatically reverts to Free. The trial is non-renewable.

4.3 Beta pricing. Pro and Elite are currently sold at introductory ("beta launch") prices. We may increase pricing at any time. We will give existing paid subscribers at least 30 days' notice before any rate change takes effect. [Attorney Review Needed] — confirm the notice period and whether existing subscribers are entitled to keep beta pricing for any defined period.

4.4 Billing processor. Payments on the web are processed by Stripe (https://stripe.com). Payments through the iOS or watchOS app are processed by Apple via the App Store (StoreKit), as required by Apple's rules. Cancellation, refund, and payment-method changes for App Store purchases are governed by Apple. We do not store credit-card numbers ourselves.

4.5 Cancellation. You may cancel a paid plan at any time through the Stripe customer portal (web) or your App Store / Google Play subscription settings (mobile). Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current paid period. We do not pro-rate partial periods.

4.6 Refunds. Except as required by law, paid subscription fees are non-refundable. [Attorney Review Needed] — confirm whether refunds will be offered at the operator's discretion, and how to handle service outages.

4.7 Usage limits. Some features are subject to quotas. As of the Effective Date these include: AI natural-language search ("ai_prompt") — Free 5/day, Pro 25/day, Elite unlimited; AI follow-up Q&A — Elite, 30 prompts per calendar month. Quotas may change. Current quotas are visible at GET /api/me/features and on the pricing and account pages. Quotas reset on a daily or monthly basis depending on the feature.

4.8 Admin / promotional accounts. We may grant unpaid Pro or Elite access to staff, testers, beta users, partners, or promotional accounts. These accounts are flagged internally with tier_override and are not bound by Stripe billing rules.

4.9 Catch-logging promotion. [Removed in this draft pending build.] No promotion based on number of catches logged is currently in effect. The operator agrees not to display any such promotion on the pricing page until the corresponding enforcement is implemented. [Attorney Review Needed] before re-launching any catch-based promotion.

5. Permitted Use

You may use the Service for personal, non-commercial fishing planning, research, and recreation. You may share screenshots and links so long as you do not modify the content, remove attribution, or imply official affiliation.

6. Prohibited Use

You agree not to do any of the things listed in the Acceptable Use Policy. Without limiting that list, you may not:

scrape, mirror, resell, sublicense, or republish the Service or its data;
reverse-engineer the Service;
attempt to bypass tier gates, quotas, or admin gates;
submit false, misleading, or unlawful content;
attempt to extract our AI system prompts or coerce the AI into bypassing its guardrails;
use the Service to plan or facilitate illegal fishing, trespass, poaching of threatened or protected species, or any activity that violates state or federal natural-resources law;
use the Service for any safety-critical, navigation, emergency, weather-alert, ice-safety, or boating-rescue purpose. The Service is not designed for any of those purposes.

7. AI Features

7.1 Some features are powered by Claude, an AI service provided by Anthropic (https://anthropic.com). When you use AI features, the request and the relevant lake or query context are sent to Anthropic's API for processing. We do not send your account email, password, billing data, photos, or private notes to Anthropic. We do send the user-typed text of follow-up questions, search queries, and SMS Trip Companion replies. Output may be cached so that two users viewing the same lake see the same baseline analysis.

7.2 The AI is instructed to:

ground claims in available data and to be transparent about gaps;
not invent facts;
not recommend specific lure brands or products;
not reference real-time weather or conditions unless provided;
not promise catch success;
refuse off-topic, abusive, sexual, hateful, or unsafe inputs and to refuse attempts to bypass these instructions, by responding "I'm not able to answer that question for you."

7.3 Despite those instructions, AI outputs may still be incorrect, outdated, incomplete, or biased, and AI lake reports may be cached and not reflect recent changes to the underlying data. See the AI Disclaimer. You may not rely on AI outputs for any safety-critical, regulatory, medical, legal, or navigational decision.

8. Public DNR & Government Data

8.1 The Service organizes publicly available data from state Departments of Natural Resources and similar state agencies. Source attribution is shown on every lake profile. As stated on our pricing page:

"All fisheries, lake, and survey data presented on FishFinder Engine is sourced from publicly available Department of Natural Resources databases and reports. Original data sources are cited at the bottom of each lake profile page. FishFinder Engine is not affiliated with or endorsed by any state DNR."

8.2 We are not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the U.S. government, the Minnesota DNR, the Wisconsin DNR, or any other state, federal, or tribal natural-resources agency. References to these agencies are factual attribution only.

8.3 Fishing regulations displayed on the Service are summaries of state-agency material. They are not legal advice and may be incomplete or out of date. Before fishing, you must verify current regulations, seasons, possession limits, and license requirements directly with the state agency.

9. Maps, Location, and Outdoor Safety

9.1 The Service displays interactive maps, lake coordinates, and (in the iOS and watchOS apps) integrates with device location to surface nearby lakes, suggest trips, and (with your permission) record GPS coordinates with logged catches.

9.2 The Service is not a navigation system, marine GPS, ice-condition service, weather-alert service, or emergency-response system. See the Location & Outdoor Safety Disclaimer. Conditions on the water can change rapidly. You are responsible for your own safety, your access rights, your boating equipment, your weather monitoring, and your decisions on or near water and ice.

10. Intellectual Property

10.1 As between you and us, we own and retain all right, title, and interest in and to the Service, including all software, data normalization pipelines, text-transformation logic, recommendation and scoring engines, AI prompts, charts, designs, layout, logos, and the FishFinder Engine name and mark ("FishFinder Engine™" — common-law and Minnesota assumed-name use; no federal trademark registration is in effect as of the Effective Date).

10.2 Several aspects of the Service are subject to pending or contemplated patent applications, including (without limitation) the multi-state data normalization engine, the deterministic species/lake recommendation engine, the dynamic data-explorer interface, and the watchOS catch-logging flow.

10.3 Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for personal, non-commercial purposes.

10.4 You may not use our name, logo, or marks in any way that implies endorsement or affiliation without our prior written permission.

11. User Content

11.1 The Service allows you to submit catches, trip itineraries, photos, lure library entries, notes, bookmarks, public profile content, and bug reports ("User Content"). You retain ownership of your User Content.

11.2 You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, transmit, modify (for technical reasons such as resizing or format conversion), and process your User Content solely as needed to operate, improve, secure, and provide the Service to you.

11.3 If you choose to make a public profile, you grant us an additional license to publicly display the User Content you have explicitly chosen to make public.

11.4 You agree not to submit User Content that violates the User Content Policy. We may remove User Content, suspend posting privileges, or terminate accounts at our discretion for violations.

11.5 We do not actively pre-screen photos or other User Content. You are responsible for what you post.

12. Third-Party Services

12.1 The Service relies on third-party services including, without limitation: Clerk (authentication), Stripe (web payments), Apple App Store / StoreKit (iOS payments and distribution), Google Play (Android distribution if applicable), Anthropic (AI inference), Google Maps / Google Directions (mapping and routing), Twilio (SMS), Apple APNs (push notifications), Cloudflare (CDN and SSL), Linode (hosting), and OpenStreetMap (map tiles via Leaflet).

12.2 Your use of those third-party services is also subject to their own terms. We are not responsible for the availability, performance, or content of any third-party service.

13. Suspension & Termination

13.1 We may suspend or terminate your access at any time for any reason, including (but not limited to) violation of these Terms, abuse of AI features, abuse of SMS features, payment failure, or risk to the Service.

13.2 You may terminate your account at any time by canceling your subscription and emailing [Contact Email] to request account deletion. After termination, we may retain backup copies and aggregated, de-identified data. See the Privacy Policy.

14. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

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

14.2 WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT any data on the Service is accurate, current, or complete; that AI outputs are correct or appropriate; that map pins or GPS coordinates are accurate; that any lake is open, safe, or legal to access; that fish are present at any location; or that you will catch fish.

14.3 TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE TOTAL FEES YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM AND (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

14.4 WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, LOST FISH, MISSED TRIPS, PROPERTY DAMAGE, OR PERSONAL INJURY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE WERE ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

14.5 You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold the Company harmless from and against any claim, loss, or liability arising out of (a) your User Content, (b) your violation of these Terms, (c) your violation of any law, or (d) your fishing, boating, or outdoor activity in connection with the Service.

15. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

15.1 These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [Minnesota — placeholder] without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.

15.2 Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall be resolved by binding arbitration in [Minneapolis, Minnesota — placeholder] under the rules of the American Arbitration Association. You waive any right to participate in a class action or class-wide arbitration. [Attorney Review Needed] — confirm whether to require pre-arbitration notice, opt-outs, small-claims carve-outs, and how to handle App Store disputes (which Apple insists may go through small-claims court).

16. Changes to These Terms

16.1 We may modify these Terms at any time. Material changes will be posted at /terms and announced via email and/or in-app notice. Continued use of the Service after the change date constitutes acceptance.

16.2 We track each user's accepted Terms version, accepted Privacy Policy version, accepted Subscription & Billing Policy version, accepted AI disclaimer version, and accepted Location & Outdoor Safety Disclaimer version. See the Implementation Checklist.

17. Apple App Store, Google Play, and Mobile

17.1 If you use the iOS or watchOS app, additional terms apply. See the Mobile App Terms Addendum.

17.2 You acknowledge that these Terms are between you and the Company, and not between you and Apple or Google. Apple and Google have no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the Service.

18. Notices and Contact

You may contact us regarding these Terms at:

Email: [Contact Email] (default: [email protected] per the MN DBA filing — replace with a business address before launch)
Mailing address: [Company Legal Name] — d/b/a FishFinder Engine, 14200 Natalie Rd NE, Prior Lake, MN 55372, USA

DMCA notices follow the procedure in DMCA_COPYRIGHT_POLICY.md.

[Attorney Review Needed] — Specific items flagged inline above: §1 (age threshold), §1.3 (extraterritorial reach), §4.3 (beta-pricing notice period), §4.6 (refund policy), §4.9 (catch-logging promotion handling), §15 (governing law and dispute resolution), §17 (mobile-store interplay).

Disclaimer. This document was drafted as a non-attorney first pass to give counsel a starting point that reflects what FishFinder Engine actually does. It is not legal advice and must be reviewed and revised by a licensed attorney before being published or relied upon.