Terms of Service

Last updated: March 4, 2026

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using the University of Podcasts platform ("Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you disagree with any part of these Terms, you may not access the Service.

2. Description of Service

University of Podcasts is a curated learning platform that organizes publicly available podcast content into structured educational pathways. We do not host or redistribute audio or video content. We provide original editorial summaries, speaker biographies, taxonomic organization, and pathway sequencing — all of which constitute original works of authorship.

3. Intellectual Property

The following elements of the Service are original intellectual property of University of Podcasts and are protected under applicable copyright, trade secret, and database protection laws:

Original Summaries: All episode summaries are editorially written by University of Podcasts and are copyrightable original works. They are not derived from, copied from, or based on descriptions provided by podcast creators or platforms.

Original Biographies: All speaker and lecturer biographies are independently authored by University of Podcasts.

Proprietary Taxonomy: Our classification system — including subject-to-micro-topic mapping, prerequisite trees, difficulty tagging, and academic-tilt classification — is proprietary and original.

Pathway Sequencing: The specific selection, arrangement, and ordering of episodes within tracks constitutes a protectable compilation under 17 U.S.C. §103.

Engagement Data: All user-generated engagement signals, including but not limited to vote percentages, completion rates, and preference data, are proprietary datasets owned exclusively by University of Podcasts.

4. Prohibited Conduct — Scraping and Data Extraction

You may not, under any circumstances:

Use automated means (including but not limited to bots, crawlers, scrapers, spiders, scripts, or any form of automated data collection) to access, copy, download, index, scrape, or otherwise extract any content, data, or information from the Service.

Systematically copy, reproduce, or redistribute any summaries, biographies, pathway structures, taxonomic data, or engagement metrics from the Service, whether by automated or manual means.

Create derivative databases, datasets, or competing services using data obtained from the Service.

Circumvent, disable, or interfere with any security, authentication, or access-control features of the Service.

Access the Service through any interface other than the interfaces provided by University of Podcasts (i.e., the website and any official applications).

Violation of this section will result in immediate account termination, permanent IP banning, and may result in legal action seeking statutory damages under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. §1030), Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and applicable state laws.

5. Content Fingerprinting

University of Podcasts embeds unique digital fingerprints ("canary tokens") within its content. These fingerprints enable us to identify and trace unauthorized reproduction of our content. The presence of our fingerprints in third-party content constitutes prima facie evidence of unauthorized copying.

6. User Accounts

You must create an account to access track and pathway data. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials. One account per person; sharing accounts is prohibited.

7. User Content

By voting, marking progress, or otherwise engaging with the Service, you grant University of Podcasts a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide license to use, aggregate, and analyze your engagement data for any purpose, including improving the Service and creating derivative datasets.

8. External Links

The Service contains links to third-party podcast platforms. University of Podcasts does not control, host, or take responsibility for external content. Links are provided for user convenience only.

9. Limitation of Liability

The Service is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. University of Podcasts shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages.

10. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms.

11. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to conflict of law principles.