Terms of Service

These terms explain the deal between you and us when you use Backline. We've tried to keep them short and in plain English. By creating an account or a team, you agree to them.

1. Who we are

Backline is run by Carbon Crayon Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company no. 06784011), London N7 8GP, trading as Backline ("we", "us"). You can reach us at support@backlineimprov.com.

2. The service

Backline helps improv teams run their schedule, RSVPs, polls, costs, subs, shared resources and a public team page. We keep improving it, which means features may change, be added or occasionally be removed. If we remove something significant that you pay for, we'll tell you in advance.

3. Your account

• You sign in with a one-time code sent to your email. Keep access to that inbox secure — anyone who can read it can sign in as you.
• Give us accurate details and keep your email address up to date.
• You must be at least 16 to create an account.
• You're responsible for what happens under your account.

4. Team owners

The person who creates a team is its owner. Owners (and the admins they appoint) decide who joins the team and what goes on its pages. As an owner you:

• are responsible for your team's content, including its public page;
• should only invite people who expect to hear from your team, and only add personal information about members that they're happy to share with the team;
• are responsible for the team's plan and billing.

For personal information about your team's members (and anyone who signs up to your team's mailing list), your team decides why and how it's used, and we process it on your behalf. Our Privacy Policy explains this in more detail.

5. Acceptable use

Don't use Backline to:

• phish, impersonate others, or trick people into handing over passwords or payment details;
• send spam or unsolicited messages;
• publish anything illegal, defamatory, hateful, or that infringes someone else's rights;
• upload malware, or try to break, overload or get around the security of the service;
• scrape the service or resell it without our permission.

If we reasonably believe a team or account is breaking these rules, we may hide content, suspend the team or account, or close it. Where we can, we'll tell you first and give you a chance to put things right — but for serious abuse (like phishing pages) we may act straight away.

6. Plans, trials and billing

• Free and Pro. Every team can use the Free plan, which has usage limits. Pro lifts the limits and adds extra features. What's included in each plan is shown on our pricing section.
• Trial. New teams get a 14-day Pro trial, with no card needed. When it ends the team moves to Free unless the owner upgrades.
• Billing. Pro is billed per team, monthly or annually, in advance. Payments are handled by Stripe; we never see or store full card details.
• Prices include VAT. Prices shown are in pounds sterling and include VAT where it applies. You'll get a VAT invoice for each payment.
• Price changes. If we change the price of a plan, we'll give you at least 30 days' notice before it affects your next renewal.

7. Cancelling and downgrading

• You can cancel Pro at any time from your team's billing page. Pro carries on until the end of the period you've paid for, then the team moves to Free.
• We don't give refunds for partial periods, except where the law requires it.
• When paid (or complimentary) Pro ends, Pro features keep working for a 30-day grace period while we remind you. After that, Pro-only features switch off. Trials end without a grace period.
• We don't delete your data when you downgrade. Over-limit teams can't add more until they're back under the limit, and Pro-only content is kept and comes back if you upgrade again.
• Member card subscriptions. When Pro switches off, members' card subscriptions to the team will be cancelled at the end of the period they've already paid for, and members are told by email. The team's other payment options (payment link or bank details) keep working. Cancelled card subscriptions don't restart if the team upgrades again — members re-subscribe.

8. Payments between members and teams

Teams can collect subs and split costs from their members by card through Stripe Connect. Those payments go straight from the member to the team's chosen Stripe account. They're an arrangement between the member and the team: we're not a party to them, we don't hold the money, and we take no fee. Stripe's own terms apply to those payments, and questions about refunds or disputes should go to the team first.

9. Your content

You own what you and your team put into Backline. You give us permission to store, copy and display it only as needed to run the service — for example, showing your public page to visitors. If you delete content it goes to your team's Trash and is permanently deleted after 90 days.

10. Availability

We work hard to keep Backline running smoothly, but we can't promise it will always be available or error-free. We may need to take it offline for maintenance, ideally with notice.

11. Liability

• Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that can't legally be limited. If you use Backline as a consumer, you also keep your statutory rights.
• We're not liable for losses that weren't foreseeable, or for loss of profits, revenue, business or goodwill.
• Otherwise, our total liability to you in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of £100 or the amount your team paid us in that period.

12. Ending things

You can stop using Backline at any time. An owner can delete a team from its settings, which permanently removes the team's data. We may suspend or close accounts or teams that break these terms (see section 5), or end the service entirely with at least 60 days' notice — in which case we'll refund any unused prepaid Pro time and help you export your data.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. If a change is significant, we'll let account holders know by email or in the app before it takes effect. Carrying on using Backline after that means you accept the new terms.

14. Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you're a consumer living elsewhere in the UK, you can also bring proceedings in your local courts.

15. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email support@backlineimprov.com.