Terms of Service

Effective: 4 September 2026 · The service is provided by Blockworks Pte. Ltd., Singapore ("Latently", "we").

These terms are a contract between you and us about using Latently — the app, the website, and the reading service behind them. Short version: read papers comfortably, only upload what you're allowed to, and remember the reformatted version is a convenience, not the paper of record.

1.Who can use Latently

You must be at least 13 years old and able to enter a contract. If you're using Latently for an organization, you confirm you can bind it.

2.Alpha status

Latently is in alpha. Features will change, break, and occasionally disappear; the service may be unavailable; despite our best efforts, data may be lost. We try hard to preserve your library and reading positions, but during alpha we can't promise it. When these terms and reality conflict with a "beta" or "alpha" label in the app, the label wins: it's all experimental.

3.The service

Latently reformats research papers for comfortable reading — on your phone especially — and remembers where you stopped. Papers come from open-access sources at your request, or from files you upload. Every paper links back to its original; the original is always the paper of record (see §8). Openly licensed papers are served with attribution as their license requires. Papers whose license doesn't permit shared serving are available to you in other forms (such as a link to the original, or a private version where the law and license allow).

4.Your content

This section is why we can promise your uploads stay yours.

• Ownership: files you upload and notes you make remain yours. We claim no ownership.
• License to us: you grant us the license we need to operate the service — to host, process, reformat, and display your content back to you (and to anyone you later explicitly share it with, if sharing features exist). That's the entire scope. The license ends when your content is deleted, except for the request ledger described in our Privacy Policy.
• Your promise: you upload or add a paper only if you have the right to do so — because it's openly licensed, because you hold the rights, or because your access to it (for example through your institution) permits personal-use copies. You're responsible for what you add. If someone claims your upload infringes, §7 applies.
• We may remove content that violates these terms or the law, and we'll tell you when we do unless prohibited.

5.Your account

Keep your credentials to yourself; you're responsible for activity under your account. One account per person. Tell us at once if you suspect unauthorized access.

6.Acceptable use

Don't: break the law; upload malware or content you have no right to; probe, overload, or circumvent our infrastructure or its limits; scrape or bulk-export the service or other users' content; resell access; or misrepresent who you are. Openly licensed papers remain governed by their own licenses — those licenses, not these terms, govern what you may do with the underlying papers themselves.

7.Copyright — takedowns and repeat infringers

We respect rights holders and expect users to do the same. During the alpha, send copyright notices to privacy@latently.app and we will act on them promptly. Our full takedown and counter-notice procedure, with a designated agent, will be published at latently.app/dmca before upload features open.

Repeat-infringer policy: we will, in appropriate circumstances, suspend or terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe copyright — as a guideline, accounts accrue strikes on valid, uncontested takedowns; three strikes within 12 months means termination, with discretion for good-faith cases, and a successful counter-notice removes the strike. We keep records of notices for this purpose.

8.Accuracy — read this one

Latently's reading versions are produced by automated conversion. It is good and always improving, but equations, tables, figures, footnotes, and text can differ from the original — occasionally in ways that change meaning. Always verify against the linked original before citing, building on, or making any decision that depends on a paper's exact content. The reformatted version is a reading convenience, never the paper of record.

9.Our stuff

The Latently software, apps, design, name, and logo are ours. Papers belong to their authors and rights holders. These terms give you a personal, non-transferable right to use the service, nothing more.

10.Fees

The alpha is free. If we introduce paid features, we'll say clearly what costs what before you spend anything, and these terms will be updated with payment provisions at that point.

11.Ending things

You can stop using Latently and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms, and we may wind down the alpha itself. If your account ends (either way), we'll give you a reasonable opportunity — 30 days — to export your uploads and notes, except where we terminated for infringement or law-breaking.

12.Disclaimers and liability

The service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, to the maximum extent the law allows — including fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, and including everything §2 and §8 already said in plain words.

To the maximum extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential losses, or loss of data or profits. Our total liability for everything arising out of the service is capped at the greater of what you paid us in the last 12 months or S$50. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot legally be excluded.

You'll indemnify us against third-party claims arising from content you uploaded or added in breach of §4 — this is the flip side of you controlling what you add.

13.Apple

When you get Latently through Apple's App Store or TestFlight: these terms are between you and us, not Apple; Apple has no obligation to support or maintain the app and isn't responsible for any claim relating to it; Apple is a third-party beneficiary of this section and may enforce it. You confirm you're not in a US-embargoed country and not on any US restricted-parties list.

14.Boring but necessary

• Governing law: Singapore. Disputes go to the courts of Singapore.
• Changes: we may update these terms; material changes will be announced (in-app or by email) before they take effect. Continuing to use Latently after that means you accept them.
• Severability: if a clause is unenforceable, the rest stands.
• Contact: questions about these terms and, during the alpha, copyright notices → privacy@latently.app.