Terms of Service

Version 2.0 · Effective October 2026 · Replaces the version dated September 16, 2026

These Terms are the agreement between you and Novbay for using Novbay. We've written them in plain English, but they're still a binding agreement, so please read them. Sections 8 through 11 explain what you're responsible for and limit what Novbay is responsible for. They matter most.

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1. Agreement

By creating an account, joining a workspace, or using Novbay, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. "Novbay," "we," and "us" mean Novbay, the provider of the Novbay apps (Opus, Charta, Manus, Materia, and Plugins). "You" means the person using Novbay. If you use Novbay for a team, club, school, or business, "you" also means that organization, and you confirm you're allowed to agree on its behalf. If you don't agree, please don't use Novbay.

2. Who can use Novbay

People of any age may use Novbay, with one rule for young users: a child under 13 may use Novbay only if a parent, guardian, teacher, or club or team advisor adds them to a workspace and agrees to these Terms and our Privacy Policy on the child's behalf. That adult is responsible for the child's use. Users from 13 up to the age of majority where they live confirm that a parent or guardian is okay with them using Novbay and with these Terms.

3. Your account

• Keep access to your email account and Google account secure. Signing in to Novbay depends on them.
• You're responsible for everything done under your account, and Owners and Admins are responsible for the people they invite.
• Tell us right away at support@novbay.com if you think someone has used your account without permission.

4. Your content

• You own your content: procedures, run records, notes, readings, photos, and other workspace data. As between you and Novbay, it belongs to you or your team.
• You give us permission to use it only to run Novbay. That means you grant Novbay a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, process, transmit, and display your content, only as needed to operate, secure, support, and improve the service for you. This license ends when your content is deleted, except for copies we need to keep under our Data Retention Policy.
• You're responsible for your content. You confirm you have the right to upload it and that it doesn't break any law or anyone else's rights.
• Workspace content belongs to the workspace. The Owner controls the workspace, including who has access, exports, and deletion.

5. Acceptable use

Please don't:

• Break the law or help someone else break it.
• Try to get into accounts, workspaces, or systems you aren't allowed to access, or test for vulnerabilities except as described on our Security page.
• Disrupt, overload, or reverse-engineer Novbay, or get around its limits or security.
• Upload malware, or unlawful, infringing, or harmful content.
• Store health information, payment card numbers, government ID numbers, classified information, or export-controlled technical data (such as ITAR or EAR-controlled data) in Novbay.
• Resell Novbay or use it to build a competing product.

6. Plans, billing, and cancellation

• Free plan: $0, with procedure, people, and storage limits shown on our pricing page. College teams are free during the beta.
• Paid plans (Starter and Team, plus storage add-ons) are billed in advance, monthly or yearly, through Stripe. They renew automatically until canceled. Prices don't include taxes, and Stripe may add sales tax where it applies.
• Cancel anytime in Settings → Billing. Your plan stays active until the end of the period you've paid for, then moves to Free. Canceling never deletes your data (see the Data Retention Policy).
• Refunds: except where the law requires otherwise, payments are non-refundable, and we don't give credits for partial periods. If something went wrong, email us and we'll take a look.
• Price changes: we'll give Owners at least 30 days' notice before a price change applies to their next renewal.
• Failed payments: if a payment fails, we may limit paid features until it's fixed. A run in progress is never cut off.

7. Beta features

Novbay, and especially the free college-team beta and anything labeled "beta," "preview," or "new," is still being built. Beta features may change, break, lose data, or go away at any time without notice, and they come with no commitment that they'll continue. Sections 8 through 11 apply fully to beta features.

8. What Novbay is, and what it isn't

Novbay is a tool for writing, running, and keeping records of your procedures. It is not engineering, safety, quality, legal, or compliance advice, and it does not check whether a procedure is correct or safe.

You are solely responsible for:

• Checking every procedure for accuracy, completeness, and safety before anyone uses it, and following your own review, approval, and safety practices.
• Deciding whether Novbay fits your needs, including any legal, regulatory, contractual, or certification requirements. Novbay is not certified or validated for regulated records (see our Security page).
• The work itself: anything you build, test, assemble, operate, or launch, and the safety of the people doing it.
• Keeping your own copies. Regularly export, back up, or print the procedures and records your work depends on, and don't rely on Novbay as the only copy of anything critical.

9. No warranties

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NOVBAY IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY. THAT INCLUDES ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, AND QUIET ENJOYMENT.

In plain English: we work hard to keep Novbay reliable and secure, but we don't promise that it will be uninterrupted, on time, secure, or free of errors. We also don't promise that sync will always work, that data will never be lost or damaged, that any record or PDF will be accurate or complete, or that Novbay will meet your requirements. Some places don't allow certain warranties to be excluded. In those places, these exclusions apply only as far as the law allows.

10. Limits on our responsibility

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW:

(a) Data and availability. Novbay is not liable for any procedures, records, photos, or other data that are lost, deleted, corrupted, altered, out of sync, or unavailable, for any reason. That includes sync failures, conflicts between devices, outages, downtime, maintenance, bugs, problems at our providers, deletions by you or your teammates, or security incidents.

(b) Your operations. Novbay is not liable for any effect on your operations, production, schedules, safety, testing, launches, compliance, certifications, grades, competitions, contracts, or business. That includes harm resulting from following, skipping, or relying on any procedure or record in Novbay.

(c) Kinds of damages. Novbay is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any lost profits, revenue, savings, data, goodwill, or business opportunities, or the cost of replacement services. This applies even if we were told such damages were possible, and whether the claim is based on contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability, or anything else.

(d) Cap. Novbay's total liability for all claims relating to Novbay or these Terms is limited to the amount you paid Novbay for Novbay in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. If you use Novbay for free, that amount is USD $0.

(e) Why. These limits are a basic part of the deal. They're what lets us offer Novbay at its price, including for free, and they apply even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose. Some places don't allow some of these limits. In those places, our liability is limited to the smallest amount the law allows. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that can't be limited by law.

11. Your responsibility to us (indemnity)

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Novbay, and anyone acting on its behalf, from any claims, losses, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from:

• your content;
• your use of Novbay, including any procedure performed using it and its results;
• your breaking these Terms or any law; or
• your violation of anyone else's rights.

If you use Novbay for an organization, this applies to the organization too. We'll let you know about any such claim and may choose to handle our own defense.

12. Suspension and termination

• You can stop using Novbay at any time. You can delete your account or workspace as described on Your Data Rights.
• We may suspend or end your access, with or without notice, if you break these Terms, if your use puts others or the service at risk, if the law requires it, or if we stop offering Novbay. Where it's reasonable, we'll warn you first and give you a chance to export your data.
• If we shut Novbay down entirely, we'll give Owners at least 30 days' notice to export their data, and we'll refund any prepaid fees for the time after the shutdown.
• Sections 4 (license to the extent needed for retention), 8 through 11, and 13 through 15 continue after termination.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. When we do, we'll change the version number and effective date at the top. For significant changes, we'll tell Owners by email or in the app at least 14 days before they take effect, and we may ask you to accept the new Terms when you next sign in. If you keep using Novbay after changes take effect, you accept them. If you don't agree, stop using Novbay and export your data.

14. Disputes

If you have a problem with Novbay, please email support@novbay.com first. Most issues can be fixed quickly, and we'll try in good faith to resolve yours informally within 30 days.

If we can't resolve it informally, then to the extent permitted by law:

• Individual claims only. Claims must be brought by you individually, not as part of a class or group.
• One-year limit. Any claim must be filed within one year after it arose, or it's permanently barred.
• Small claims. Either of us may bring a qualifying claim in small-claims court.

15. Everything else

• Whole agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Data Retention Policy, and Data Rights page, are the whole agreement between you and Novbay about Novbay.
• Severability. If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, that part will be enforced as far as the law allows, and the rest of the Terms stay in effect.
• No waiver. If we don't enforce a part of these Terms right away, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You can't transfer these Terms without our written consent. We may transfer them, for example if Novbay becomes a company or is sold.
• Events beyond our control. We aren't responsible for delays or failures caused by things outside our reasonable control, such as provider outages, internet failures, natural disasters, or government action.
• Notices. We'll send notices to your account email. Send notices to us at support@novbay.com.

Version history

• 2.0 (October 2026): Full rewrite. Added details on content, acceptable use, billing, beta features, responsibility for procedures and data, warranties, limits on liability, indemnity, young users, and disputes.
• 1.0 (September 16, 2026): First short Terms.

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Questions about these Terms? Email support@novbay.com. See also: Privacy Policy · Data Retention · Your Data Rights · Security