These are the terms for using Lumotext — the browser extension, the web app and the iOS app. They are written to be read, not skimmed past, and they are short because the service is simple: it reads things aloud. The privacy policy is the other half of this; where the two overlap, the privacy policy is the one that describes what we store.
1. Who we are, and agreeing to this
Lumotext is made by William Hellems-Moody, trading as Lumotext, in Austin, Texas ("we", "us"). By installing the extension, using the web app, or signing in to the iOS app, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, don't use Lumotext — there's nothing else to it. You need to be at least 13 to have an account, and at least 18 (or the age of majority where you live) to buy a plan.
2. What Lumotext is
Lumotext reads text aloud: web pages, PDFs, EPUBs, things you paste or scan. Reading with a device voice happens on your own device with the voices your browser or phone already has. Reading with a cloud voice, where offered, sends the sentence being read to our servers to be spoken and returns the audio; it is not stored. A free account gives you a library — documents you choose to save, and where you stopped in each — that follows you between the extension, the web app and the iOS app.
Lumotext is a reader. It is not a substitute for professional advice of any kind, and reading something aloud does not make it accurate — what a page says is between you and the page.
3. Your account
An account is an email address and a one-time sign-in link, or a Google or Apple sign-in. Keep access to that email to yourself; anything done from your account is yours. One account is for one person. You can delete your account from inside the app at any time, and doing so removes it and everything in your library, on every device, permanently.
4. Your content
What you read, save, paste, upload or scan is yours. We claim no ownership of it and no rights over it beyond what is needed to do what you asked: store it in your library, show it back to you on your devices, and — with a cloud voice — send the sentence being read to be spoken. We do not read your library, train anything on it, or share it, except as the privacy policy describes for the companies that run our infrastructure.
You are responsible for having the right to read what you put into Lumotext. Reading a page aloud to yourself is ordinary use of that page; distributing the audio may not be, depending on whose text it is. Audio that Lumotext produces from your own text is yours to use.
5. Limits on the free plan
The free plan has limits — a number of saved documents, a total size of kept files, and a size per file. The current numbers are shown in the app's account panel, read live from the same place they are enforced, and they are the numbers that apply. We may change them; we will not lower them for an account that is already over the new limit without notice, and nothing already saved is deleted by a change.
6. Paid plans
Lumotext is free to use with device voices. The paid plan, Pro, is optional; this section covers it. On iPhone and iPad it is sold through the App Store; on the web, where it is offered, it is sold by us.
- What you get. A paid plan adds what its description on the plans page says at the time you buy it — cloud voices with a monthly allowance, and larger library limits. The allowance is a set amount of cloud listening per billing month; when it is used up, reading continues with a device voice until the allowance resets, and unused allowance does not roll over.
- Renewal. Plans renew automatically at the end of each billing period — monthly or yearly, whichever you chose — and your payment method is charged the then-current price for that plan, plus any tax, until you cancel.
- Cancelling. You can cancel at any time from your account page. Cancelling stops the next charge; you keep the plan until the end of the period you have already paid for, and then it ends. There is no fee for cancelling and no one you have to speak to.
- No refunds. Payments are not refundable. Cancelling stops the next charge; it does not refund the last one, and there are no partial refunds for the unused part of a period. This is why Free never ends — try Lumotext for as long as you like before paying for anything. Where the law where you live gives you a right to a refund that can't be waived, that law applies.
- Price changes. If a plan's price changes, we will tell you by email at least 30 days before it affects you. If you don't want the new price, cancel before it takes effect and you'll never pay it.
- Buying through Apple. A plan bought inside the iOS app is sold by Apple through the App Store. Apple's terms, billing and refund process apply to that purchase, and cancelling it is done in your Apple account. A plan bought on the web is sold by us and this section applies.
- When a plan ends. Cloud voices stop. Your library stays, on every device. Anything over the free plan's limits remains readable; you can't add more until you are under the limits or on a plan again.
- Fair use. The allowance is for a person reading. Automated use, sharing an account, or extracting audio at scale is not what it is for, and we may end a plan used that way without a refund.
7. What you agree not to do
Don't use Lumotext to break the law or someone else's rights. Don't try to get around the limits, the allowance, or the parts of the service that check who you are. Don't probe, overload or interfere with the service or with other people's use of it. Don't resell Lumotext, or use it to build a service that competes with it by passing our voices through to your own users. Don't put anything into it that you don't have the right to. That's the list; it is meant to be obvious.
8. What's ours
Lumotext itself — the apps, the extension, the site, the name, the design and the code — is ours. These terms give you permission to use it, personally, for reading; they don't transfer anything. Feedback you send us is welcome and we may use it without owing you anything for it, which is the usual arrangement and the only practical one.
9. Companies we rely on
The service runs on other companies' infrastructure — hosting, authentication and the database, email delivery, and, for cloud voices, the speech provider. Each is named in the privacy policy, together with what it sees. Payments for Pro are handled by Apple (in the iOS app) or by Stripe (on the web), both named there too; we never see or store your card number.
10. Availability and changes
We work to keep Lumotext up, but it is a small service and it will sometimes be down, slow, or have a bug. We may change it, add to it, or remove parts of it. If we ever shut it down, we will say so in advance and give you a way to get your library out. Device-voice reading in the extension and the web app works without our servers at all and is not affected by any of this.
11. No warranties
Lumotext is provided as it is. We don't promise it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fit for any particular purpose, and we make no promises about what the text it reads says. To the extent the law allows, we disclaim every warranty, express or implied.
12. Limits on our liability
To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages, or for lost data, lost profits or lost opportunities, arising out of Lumotext or these terms. Our total liability to you for anything arising out of Lumotext is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or fifty US dollars if you paid nothing. Some places don't allow some of these limits; where that's you, they apply only as far as that law allows.
13. Ending this
You can stop using Lumotext, or delete your account, whenever you like. We can suspend or close an account that breaks section 7, or that we are legally required to close; where we can, we'll tell you why. If we close an account for any other reason — one that isn't yours — we'll give you notice, and for a paid plan that is the one case where we refund the unused part. Sections 4, 8, 11, 12 and 14 survive the end of the agreement, because they have to.
14. Disputes and law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. If something goes wrong, write to us first — nearly everything can be sorted out by email, and we'd rather do that than anything else. If it can't be, disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts in Travis County, Texas, and both of us agree to that venue. Nothing here takes away rights you have as a consumer under the law where you live that can't be waived.
15. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. When we do, the date at the top changes, and for anything that matters — a change to paid plans, to refunds, or to what we may do with your content — we'll email account holders at least 30 days before it takes effect. Continuing to use Lumotext after a change means you accept it; if you don't, stop using it, or delete your account, and the old terms are the last ones that applied to you.
16. The rest
These terms and the privacy policy are the whole agreement between you and us about Lumotext. If a court finds part of them unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce something once, we can still enforce it later. You can't transfer your account or this agreement to someone else; we may transfer it if Lumotext is sold or reorganised, and we'll tell you if that happens.
Contact
Questions about these terms go to support@lumotext.com. Questions about what we store go to privacy@lumotext.com. A person reads both.