Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") set out the conditions of use of all content and services provided by the operator (the "Operator") of "bkbkb" (bkbkb.net). Users may use the Service only after agreeing to these Terms.

1. Names and Definitions

  1. "Service" refers collectively to the Site bkbkb.net and the content and features provided on it.
  2. "User" means any person who uses the Service.
  3. "Member" means any User who has completed registration and uses the Service, and falls into one of the following categories:
    1. "Free Member": a member who uses features available free of charge
    2. "Paid Member": a member who pays the prescribed fee and uses paid features
    3. "Verified Member": a member who has completed identity verification or other procedures separately defined by the Operator
  4. "Individual Provisions" refers to separate rules, guidelines, and other terms applied together with these Terms.

2. Purpose

The Service is intended to provide content created by the Operator — including but not limited to articles, tools, and experimental works in music, software, and media expression — to those interested in such topics.

3. Application

  1. These Terms apply to all relationships between Users and the Operator concerning use of the Service.
  2. The Operator may establish Individual Provisions in addition to these Terms. Individual Provisions form part of these Terms regardless of their name.
  3. In case of any conflict between these Terms and the Individual Provisions, the Individual Provisions shall prevail unless otherwise specified.

4. Registration

  1. Once the member feature becomes available, a person wishing to register agrees to these Terms, applies for registration by the method prescribed by the Operator, and registration is completed upon the Operator's approval.
  2. The Operator may refuse to approve a registration application if it determines any of the following applies, without any obligation to disclose the reason:
    1. False statements were made in the application
    2. The applicant has previously violated these Terms
    3. The Operator otherwise deems the registration inappropriate

5. Management of Member ID and Password

  1. Members shall manage their member ID and password at their own responsibility.
  2. Members shall not, under any circumstances, transfer, lend, or share their member ID or password with any third party. When a combination of member ID and password matching the registered information is used to log in, the Operator shall regard such login as use by the registered Member.
  3. The Operator shall not be liable for any damage arising from the use of a member ID or password by a third party, except in cases of willful misconduct or gross negligence on the part of the Operator.

6. Fees and Payment

  1. Paid Members shall pay the fees for paid features by the method designated by the Operator, as separately set forth on the Site.
  2. Details of payment method, billing timing, and refund policy will be separately defined when paid features are launched.
  3. If a Member fails to pay fees on time, the Member shall pay a late payment fee at the rate of 14.6% per annum.

7. Prohibited Activities

Users shall not engage in any of the following activities in connection with the Service:

  1. Acts that violate laws or public order and morals
  2. Acts related to criminal activities
  3. Acts that destroy or interfere with the functions of servers or networks of the Operator, other Users, or third parties
  4. Acts that may interfere with the operation of the Service
  5. Collecting or accumulating personal information about other Users
  6. Unauthorized access or attempts thereof
  7. Impersonating other Users
  8. Providing any benefit, directly or indirectly, to antisocial forces in connection with the Service
  9. Infringing the intellectual property rights, portrait rights, privacy, reputation, or other rights or interests of the Operator, other Users, or third parties
  10. Manipulating advertisements on the Service through unfair means (including auto-click, fraudulent clicks, and bypassing of ad displays)
  11. Reproducing, redistributing, modifying, or republishing content from the Service without permission
  12. Placing excessive load on the Service through scraping, crawlers, or similar means
  13. Using content from the Service as training data for, or as input to, artificial intelligence or machine learning models (including generative AI) without the prior written consent of the Operator (as set forth in Article 9, paragraph 4)
  14. Posting or transmitting content containing any of the following expressions:
    1. Excessively violent content
    2. Explicit sexual content
    3. Discriminatory expressions based on race, nationality, belief, gender, social status, family origin, etc.
    4. Expressions that induce or promote suicide, self-harm, or drug abuse
    5. Other antisocial content or content that causes significant discomfort to others
  15. Solicitation, advertising, promotion, or other commercial activities (except those approved by the Operator)
  16. Solicitation for religious activities or religious organizations
  17. Other acts that the Operator deems inappropriate

8. Suspension of Service

  1. The Operator may suspend or interrupt all or part of the Service without prior notice to Users if any of the following applies:
    1. Maintenance, inspection, or update of the systems related to the Service
    2. Provision of the Service becomes difficult due to force majeure such as earthquakes, lightning, fire, power outages, or natural disasters
    3. Computers or communication lines stop due to accidents
    4. Failure occurs in the cloud services, CDN, or other external services used
    5. Other cases where the Operator deems provision of the Service difficult
  2. The Operator shall not be liable for any disadvantage or damage incurred by Users or third parties as a result of the suspension or interruption of the Service.
  1. The copyright and other intellectual property rights to all content (including text, images, audio, video, software, and design) related to the Service belong to the Operator or to the rightful owners. Users may not reproduce, transfer, lend, translate, modify, republish, transmit, distribute, publish, or use such content commercially beyond the scope of personal use.
  2. Users may post or upload content to the Service only if they hold the necessary intellectual property rights or have obtained the required permissions from the rights holders.
  3. Copyright in content posted to the Service by a User shall be retained by that User or by the existing rights holders. However, the Operator may use such content as necessary for providing, improving, maintaining quality of, correcting defects in, promoting, or introducing the Service, and the User agrees not to exercise their moral rights in connection with such use.
  4. The following uses of any content published on the Service (including text, images, audio, video, source code, and metadata) are strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of the Operator:
    1. Incorporating the content into, or providing it to, datasets used for training, fine-tuning, continued training, evaluation, or validation of artificial intelligence (including generative AI), machine learning models, large language models, or any other automated systems
    2. Using the content as input to such models, including for response generation, summarization, adaptation, or restructuring through retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) or similar techniques
    3. Collecting, storing, or redistributing the content via crawlers, scrapers, or other automated tools for the purposes described above
  5. The preceding paragraph applies to uses beyond what is expressly permitted by copyright law or other applicable laws (including any lawful exceptions for information analysis). The Operator hereby expressly opts out of any AI or machine-learning use of the Service's content, regardless of whether any statutory exception would otherwise apply.

10. Advertising

  1. The Operator may display third-party advertisements (such as Google AdSense) on the Service.
  2. The Operator is not responsible for the products or services of advertisers or ad providers, and shall not be involved in any transaction, communication, or dispute between Users and advertisers or ad providers.

11. Restriction of Use and Cancellation of Registration

  1. The Operator may, without prior notice, delete posted content, restrict use of all or part of the Service, or cancel registration if a User or Member falls under any of the following:
    1. Violation of any provision of these Terms
    2. Discovery of false information in the registered details
    3. The registered payment method becomes unavailable
    4. Default on payment of fees or other obligations
    5. No response to the Operator's communication for a certain period
    6. No use of the Service for a certain period since the last use
    7. The Operator otherwise deems use of the Service inappropriate
  2. If any of the items in the preceding paragraph applies, the Member shall lose the benefit of time concerning all debts owed to the Operator and shall immediately pay all such debts in full.
  3. The Operator shall not be liable for any damage incurred by a Member as a result of actions taken under this Article.

12. Withdrawal

Members may withdraw from the Service by following the withdrawal procedure prescribed by the Operator. Settlement of any unpaid fees for paid features upon withdrawal shall follow separately defined rules.

13. Disclaimer

  1. The Operator does not, expressly or impliedly, warrant that the Service is free from defects in fact or in law (including defects in safety, reliability, accuracy, completeness, validity, fitness for a particular purpose, security, errors or bugs, and rights infringement).
  2. The Operator shall not be liable for any damages incurred by Users arising from the Service. However, this disclaimer does not apply where a contract between the Operator and a User regarding the Service constitutes a consumer contract under the Consumer Contract Act of Japan.
  3. Even in the cases described in the proviso of the preceding paragraph, the Operator shall not be liable for damages arising from special circumstances (including those foreseen or foreseeable by the Operator or the User) due to default or tort caused by the Operator's negligence (excluding gross negligence). Compensation for damages incurred by a Member due to default or tort caused by the Operator's negligence (excluding gross negligence) shall be limited to the amount of fees received from the Member in the month in which the damage occurred.
  4. The Operator shall not be liable for any transactions, communications, or disputes between a User and other Users or third parties in connection with the Service.

14. Changes to the Service

The Operator may change the content of the Service or discontinue the Service without notice to Users, and shall not be liable for any damages incurred by Users as a result.

15. Changes to the Terms

  1. The Operator may change these Terms at any time without notice to Users when deemed necessary.
  2. If a User continues to use the Service after the change, the User shall be deemed to have agreed to the revised Terms.

16. Handling of Personal Information

Personal information obtained through use of the Service shall be handled in accordance with the separate "Privacy Policy".

17. Notice and Communication

Notice and communication between Users and the Operator shall be made by the method prescribed by the Operator. Unless a Member has submitted a change of contact information in accordance with the method separately defined by the Operator, the Operator shall regard the currently registered contact as valid and send notice or communication to that contact, which shall be deemed to have reached the Member at the time of dispatch.

18. Prohibition of Assignment

Users may not transfer to any third party, or provide as collateral, their status under the usage agreement or any rights or obligations under these Terms without the prior written consent of the Operator.

19. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

  1. These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Japan.
  2. In the event of any dispute concerning the Service, the court having jurisdiction over the location of the Operator shall have exclusive jurisdiction by agreement.

20. Miscellaneous

Any matters not provided for in these Terms, or any doubts arising in interpreting these Terms, shall be resolved through good-faith consultation between the Operator and the User.

Established: December 1, 2020 Last revised: May 23, 2026