Membership Terms of Use - Ari Augustine

Terms of Use

Effective August 21, 2024

The Root Abyss is a membership service for my readers. It aims to build a community where readers are invited to be part the intimate writing process through early access to serial fiction chapters, exclusive story content, and other benefits only available to dedicated. This membership is the first step in a long-term dream to writing the stories I love without sacrificing rights or dealing with AI art shenanigans & gatekeeping.Writing should be about YOU, ME, and THE STORIES between us. The terms below are a dedicated attempt to maintaining creative freedom and the joy of writing stories readers like you. Please review the terms of use, service, and conditions carefully before agreeing to them.

Welcome to the Root Abyss Membership!

To summarize: by signing up and accessing the Root Abyss Membership, you agree to these terms.

These are the Terms of Use for the Root Abyss Membership, and they apply to all registered members of the community. “We”, “our”, “us”, “me”, “Member Rank”, and “Member Services” all refer to the Root Abyss Membership and its perks, which are included in and protected by these terms. By signing up and using the Root Abyss Membership, you agree to all these terms and to other policies that may be posted, including Community Guidelines, Forum Rules, and Privacy Policies

Please read them carefully and let me know if you have any questions. For information about data practices, please see the Privacy Policies. The Root Abyss Membership collects, uses, and shares information in accordance with those policies.

Your Account

To summarize: You must be at least 13 years old to signup and access the Root Abyss Membership. Minors must have parental consent.

When you create an account,you must provide accurate information, and you agree to keep that information updated if it changes. To create an account, purchase a Member Rank, and/or access Member Services, you must be at least 13 years old and old enough to consent to the processing of your personal information in your country. If underage, parents are able to subscribe on your behalf OR purchase a gift membership in your name.

Please contact us immediately if you believe your account is compromised.

Fees, Payments, & Taxes

To summarize: You are subscribing to an auto-renewing monthly membership, for which prices will be based on the Member Rank you selected at signup and charged every 30 days.

Fees. Subscription fees for the Member Services are recurring payments (except where identified as otherwise). The term may be monthly or annually, as described in the course the of transaction. Your subscription begins upon signup and the first monthly payment, and then it auto-renews. Member can cancel their subscription at any time through their Member Account. Monthly or annual fees are charged on the same day of the month that the subscription begins.

Payments. Membership payments can be made through current methods indicated at signup, which may include PayPal, Stripe, credit card, Google, Apple, or another third party. Monthly membership fees may can change at any time, and the Root Abyss Membership does not provide refunds in the event of a price reduction or promotional offering. You agree to pay the fee listed for the subscription tier (“Member Rank”) selected (except during a free trial period), including any additional amounts such as applicable taxes, bank fees, and currency fluctuations, which will be reflected on the invoice.

Taxes. If the Root Abyss Membership is required to collect or pay any taxes in connection with your purchase of Member Services, such taxes will be charged to you at the time of each monthly transaction or other appropriate time as applicable. The Member is responsible for reporting any large donations or monetary support to the IRS when they file taxes.

Free Trials

To summarize: Free trials may be available to new members. They will auto-renew unless (or until) the member cancels the subscription. To avoid auto-renew, members must cancel before the free trial ends.

The Root Abyss Membership may offer free trials to New Members. If you initiate a subscription through a free trial offer, you will receive free access to Member Services for the duration of the free trial period. At the end of the applicable free trial period, you will automatically be charged the price of the subscription and will continue to be charged until you cancel your subscription. To avoid any charges, you must cancel before the end of the free trial period.

Restrictions

To summarize: You must be at least 13 years old to signup and access the Root Abyss Membership. Minors must have parental consent.

When you signup and access for a Root Abyss Membership, you may not (or attempt to):

use any of the benefits provided to you in an illegal manner or for illegal purposes;
share your account password, username, or grant any form of access to someone who is not a member;
copy, sell, rent, share, or sublicense the content provided as Member Rank perks to any third party;
circumvent, reverse-engineer, modify, disable, or otherwise tamper with any security technology that the Root Abyss Membership or any third-party uses to protect members or encourage or help anyone else to do so;
present any false, inaccurate or misleading information in an effort to misrepresent your age, location, or place of residence, and you will not attempt to circumvent any restrictions on access to or availability of the Member Services or content available within the Member Services.

Copyright & Intellectual Property

To summarize: The content within the Root Abyss Membership is the property of Ari Augustine, unless otherwise specified on the website. Members are expressly forbidden from taking any of the content beyond the paywall of the membership.

Except as otherwise indicated, the Root Abyss Membership, and its entire contents, (collectively, the “Member Services”), including, but not limited to, the serial fiction chapters, text, audio files, information, material, character/world archives, artwork, video content, software and graphics contained on this website, are owned by or licensed to Ari Augustine, and the Root Abyss Membership. The Member Services are protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws and treaties. The Root Abyss Membership makes no proprietary claim to any third party copyrights, names, trademarks or service marks appearing on the website. Any third party copyrights, names, trademarks, or service marks are the properties of their respective owners. The Member Services may not be copied, reproduced, modified, published, uploaded, downloaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed in any way, without the Root Abyss Membership and its Author’s (“Ari Augustine) prior written permission. Author and the Root Abyss Membership reserves the right to change, update, discontinue, restrict or prevent access to this Website or the Member Services at any time without notice.

Any content created in collaboration with readers through suggestions, requests, polls, or any interaction where ideas may be exchanged with the author (“Ari Augustine”) remains the property of the author and the Root Abyss Membership. By agreeing to the terms, Members acknowledge that suggestions, ideas, or requests made to the author do not grant them copyrights to works written.

AI Disclaimer

To summarize: You are not allowed to feed any of the content shared through the Root Abyss Membership to AI software of any kind.

Please contact us immediately if you believe your account is compromised.

Membership Cancellation & Termination

To summarize: Members can cancel their subscriptions at any time, and the Root Abyss Membership can terminate their access at any time for breaching these terms of use.

You can cancel your Root Abyss Membership at any time. If you purchase a subscription that auto-renews, you may cancel the subscription any time before the end of the current billing period and the cancellation will take effect on the next billing period, except as otherwise communicated to you by the Root Abyss Membership. You will retain access to the Member Rank perks from the time you cancel until the start of the next billing period, and will not receive a refund or credit for any remaining days in your current billing period. Subscription fees paid are final and nonrefundable, unless otherwise communicated.

Changes to Membership

To summarize: Members can cancel their subscriptions at any time, and the Root Abyss Membership can terminate their access at any time for breachin

Changes or Discontinuation of Member Services. The Root Abyss Membership reserves the right to change the availability of Member Services. In addition, Root Abyss Membership reserves the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any Member Service with or without notice to you. It will not be liable to you or any third party for any such modifications, suspension, or termination.

Changes to the Membership Terms of Service & Conditions. Root Abyss Membership may change these Membership Terms of Service & Conditions from time to time. You will be alerted and asked to review and agree to updated terms. If you refuse to accept the updated Membership Terms of Service & Conditions, then Root Abyss Membership reserves its right to discontinue your use of the Member Services.

Communications

To summarize: By subscribing, members consent to receiving communications via email, Member forum, or text message. To opt out, Members can unsubscribe via the emails they receive.

Communications. By using the Member Services, you consent to receiving communications from me including marketing communications such as newsletters about Member Service features and content, story schedules, event reminders, special offers, promotional announcements, and supporter surveys, to your registered email address or via other methods, such as text messages. If you no longer want to receive such communications, simply send a request to Root Abyss Membership. Please review our Privacy Policies for further details.

Offensive COntent

To summarize: The Root Abyss Membership cannot be held liable for content Members may find offensive and/or disagreeable. Member Rank benefit descriptions are not comprehensive and may not be accurate. Signing up to the membership is done at your own risk.

You acknowledge and agree that certain content available in the Member Services may be considered offensive to some people and that such content may not be labeled as such. Additionally, certain descriptions of Member Services or content available in the Member Services are not guaranteed to be accurate. You agree to use the Member Services at your own risk and, subject to applicable laws, neither Root Abyss Membership nor its author (“Ari Augustine”) will be liable to you for any content that you find offensive.

You acknowledge that your online acceptance of these or any other terms constitute a binding agreement between you and the Root Abyss Membership and signify your intent to be bound to such online acceptances.

Unless not permitted by applicable law, you acknowledge and agree that that these Membership Terms of Service & Conditions, your transaction for the Member Services, and the combined relationship with the author (“Ari Augustine”) and Root Abyss Membership under these Membership Terms of Service & Conditions shall be governed by the laws of the State of Tennessee, without respect to its conflict of laws principles, and any claim or dispute that arises in whole or in part from your use of the Member Services, including the Member Services, will be decided exclusively by a court of competent jurisdiction located in Knox County, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.