Legal

Terms of Use

Parts I, II and III of the legal package: Terms of Use, Community Rules & Ethical Charter, and Content Moderation Policy.

Part I

I. TERMS OF USE

Article 1 – Platform Overview

Pulsely Stories (hereinafter "the Platform", "we", "our" or "us") is an international storytelling, reading and digital publishing platform, accessible at pulselystories.com.

The Platform aims to provide authors and readers with a creative space that is respectful, inspiring and ethical, rooted in Islamic values. It enables users to create an account, publish stories, read content, listen to podcasts, interact with other members and participate in a welcoming community.

The Platform is operated under the status of a non-professional publisher (private individual). These Terms of Use (hereinafter "Terms") constitute the contractual agreement between Pulsely Stories and any user accessing the Platform.

Article 2 – Acceptance of Terms

By accessing the Platform, creating an account or using any of its services, the user acknowledges having read these Terms and accepts them without reservation.

If the user does not accept these Terms, they must immediately stop using the Platform.

Pulsely Stories reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time. Any material modification will be notified to users by email or via a visible notice on the Platform. Continued use of the Platform after notification constitutes acceptance of the modifications.

Article 3 – Eligibility & Access Conditions

3.1 Minimum Age

Access to the Platform is reserved for persons aged at least 13 years old. By registering, the user declares and warrants that they meet this age requirement.

3.2 Minor Users

Minor users (aged 13 to 17 inclusive, or up to 18 years depending on applicable local law) are invited to use the Platform under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian.

By registering, the minor confirms they have the authorisation of their legal representative. Pulsely Stories reserves the right to request proof of such authorisation and to suspend or terminate any account whose user does not meet the required age conditions.

Legal representatives are informed that the Platform collects minimal personal data (email address, username) as part of operating the service, in accordance with the Privacy Policy.

3.3 Account Registration

Access to certain features (story publishing, comments, podcasts) requires the creation of a personal account.

The user agrees to provide accurate, complete and up-to-date information during registration and to maintain it permanently.

Article 4 – User Account Management

4.1 User Responsibility

The user is solely responsible for the confidentiality of their login credentials (username, password). They agree not to share their access with third parties and to immediately notify Pulsely Stories of any unauthorised use of their account at: contact@pulselystories.com.

Any activity carried out from an account is presumed to have been performed by its holder. Pulsely Stories cannot be held liable for the consequences of fraudulent access resulting from the user's failure to fulfil their security obligations.

4.2 Account Suspension and Deletion

Pulsely Stories reserves the right to temporarily suspend or permanently terminate any account, without prior notice or compensation, in the following cases:

  • Repeated or serious violation of these Terms or the Community Rules;
  • Publication of unlawful content, content infringing third-party rights or content contrary to the Platform's values;
  • Abusive, harassing or harmful behaviour towards other users;
  • Identity theft or provision of false information;
  • Any illegal activity carried out via the Platform.

In the event of account deletion, content published by the user may be temporarily retained in accordance with the Privacy Policy, unless an explicit deletion request is submitted.

Article 5 – Intellectual Property & Authors' Rights

5.1 Authors' Rights

Authors retain full intellectual property rights over the original works they publish on the Platform, whether texts, audio content or podcasts.

5.2 Licence Granted to the Platform

By publishing content on Pulsely Stories, the author grants the Platform a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free and revocable licence, for the duration the content remains online, for the following strictly defined purposes:

  • Hosting and displaying the content on the Platform;
  • Distributing the content to registered users;
  • Technical reproduction for backup and Platform operation purposes;
  • Promoting the content within the Platform (featured stories, internal sharing);
  • Automatic translation of content for international accessibility purposes.

This licence terminates automatically when the content is deleted by the author or when their account is closed, subject to technical deletion timeframes.

5.3 What the Platform May NOT Do

Pulsely Stories formally undertakes never to:

  • Sell or transfer authors' works to third parties;
  • Commercially exploit works outside the Platform without prior written consent from the author;
  • Pulsely Stories will never use published works for training AI models;
  • Substantially modify a work without the author's consent.

5.4 Anti-Plagiarism & Anti-AI Protection

The Platform strictly prohibits:

  • Any form of plagiarism or unauthorised copying of works published on the Platform;
  • Automated extraction of content for AI training purposes (scraping, crawling, etc.);
  • AI-generated reproduction or imitation of a work without the author's consent;
  • Republication of translated content outside the Platform without authorisation.

Article 6 – Automatic Translation Disclaimer

Pulsely Stories integrates an automatic translation system designed to allow users worldwide to access works in their language. By publishing content on the Platform, the author acknowledges and expressly accepts that their work may be automatically translated by the systems integrated into the Platform.

It is specified that:

  • Automatic translations are provided for indicative and accessibility purposes only;
  • They may contain inaccuracies, contextual errors or approximations;
  • They do not replace the original version of the work, which remains the legally binding reference version;
  • In the event of dispute or contradictory interpretation, the original version prevails over any automatic translation;
  • The author retains full intellectual property rights over their original work and the translated versions generated by the Platform.

Article 7 – Audio Content & Podcasts

Pulsely Stories includes a podcast feature subject to prior validation by the Platform administrator before any public publication.

Obligations of users publishing audio content

Users wishing to publish audio content (podcast, narration, voice recording) warrant that they:

  • Own or control all necessary rights over the published audio content;
  • Are authorised to use the voices, sound effects, music or recordings included in their publications;
  • Do not infringe the intellectual property rights, image rights or personality rights of third parties.

The following are strictly prohibited:

  • Unauthorised vocal imitation of real persons;
  • AI-based voice cloning without express consent;
  • Unauthorised use of music or recordings protected by copyright;
  • Any harmful, illegal or abusive audio content.

Article 8 – Limitation of Liability – Hosting Provider Status

Pulsely Stories acts as a hosting provider within the meaning of Article 6-I-2 of the French Law on Confidence in the Digital Economy (LCEN) and Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on digital services (DSA) for all content freely published by users (stories, comments, profile content, translations).

As such:

  • Pulsely Stories does not systematically review all user-published content prior to publication and assumes no editorial responsibility in this regard;
  • No user-published content shall be construed as reflecting the opinion, endorsement or validation of Pulsely Stories;
  • Users remain solely and entirely responsible for the content they publish and distribute via the Platform;
  • Pulsely Stories' liability cannot be engaged in connection with user-published content, provided it acts promptly to remove or disable access to any manifestly unlawful content upon becoming aware of it.

Reporting Procedure (Notice and Take Down)

Any person identifying unlawful content or content infringing their rights may report it to Pulsely Stories via:

  • The reporting button integrated into each publication on the Platform;
  • The dedicated email address: contact@pulselystories.com.

Upon receipt of a valid and detailed report, Pulsely Stories undertakes to review the reported content as promptly as possible and, if the content is deemed manifestly unlawful, to remove or disable access to it without delay.

Publisher Status for Podcasts

By way of exception to hosting provider status, Pulsely Stories assumes the role of publisher for podcast content, insofar as such content is subject to prior validation by the administrator before publication. Accordingly, the Platform assumes editorial responsibility for validated and published podcasts.

Article 9 – Service Availability & Technical Limitation of Liability

Pulsely Stories undertakes to use all reasonable means to ensure the availability and continuity of the Platform. However, the Platform is provided on a best-efforts basis only, with no guarantee of results.

Pulsely Stories shall not be held liable for:

  • Temporary service interruptions resulting from maintenance operations, technical updates or server outages;
  • Data loss resulting from technical malfunctions beyond its control;
  • Any indirect damage resulting from the use or inability to use the Platform.

Authors are expressly invited to maintain personal backups of their works and data published on the Platform. Pulsely Stories accepts no liability for data loss attributable to the user.

Pulsely Stories reserves the right to suspend access to the Platform at any time, particularly for maintenance, security or update operations, without such suspension giving rise to any right to compensation.

Part II

II. COMMUNITY RULES & ETHICAL CHARTER

Article 10 – Platform Vision & Spirit

Pulsely Stories is a literary creation platform founded on ethical and Islamic values. It is designed to provide its members with a narrative space that is respectful, inspiring, safe and welcoming.

The Platform welcomes all literary genres – halal romance, thriller, Islamic fantasy, psychology, spirituality, personal development, historical fiction, etc. – provided that published works respect the ethical spirit and values of the community.

Article 11 – Ethical Storytelling Standards

Pulsely Stories aims to build a narrative environment that:

  • Does not normalise what is haram, nor present behaviours contrary to Islamic values as desirable or admirable;
  • Does not glorify toxic relationships, abusive or destructive behaviour;
  • Preserves the dignity and respect of every human being.

Stories may include imperfect characters, moral conflicts, human errors, psychological struggles or evolving character arcs, provided these elements serve the narrative, character development or narrative depth, without glorifying or encouraging harmful behaviour.

Article 12 – Permitted Content

The following genres and themes are accepted on the Platform:

  • Halal romance (relationships respectful of Islamic values);
  • Halal thriller and mystery;
  • Psychological drama;
  • Islamic fantasy and science fiction;
  • Spirituality and faith narratives;
  • Personal development;
  • Historical fiction;
  • Social justice and societal themes;
  • Poetry and introspective narratives.

Stories may address emotional conflicts, morally complex situations, sensitive themes, psychological or social challenges, provided these themes are treated responsibly, coherently and in keeping with the Platform's values.

Article 13 – Strictly Prohibited Content

Explicit sexual content

  • Any pornography or explicit sexual scene;
  • Detailed sexual acts, fetish content or explicit nudity;
  • Any excessively sexual content, even if only heavily implied.

Glorification of harmful behaviour

  • Presenting debauchery, toxic relationships or abusive behaviour as ideal or desirable;
  • Glorifying addictions or dangerous conduct;
  • Any content actively promoting behaviour harmful to oneself or others.

Excessive violence

  • Graphic violence scenes for shock or sensationalist purposes;
  • Graphic torture or any extreme violence without narrative value.

Hateful or discriminatory content

  • Racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism or any form of discrimination;
  • Hate speech, violent extremism or discriminatory attacks targeting a group.

Illegal and dangerous activities

  • Terrorist propaganda or apology for violence;
  • Incitement to self-harm, suicide or dangerous behaviour;
  • Any dangerous, illegal or harmful instructions.

Article 14 – Authors' Responsibilities

Authors publishing content on Pulsely Stories agree to:

  • Publish only original content or content for which they hold the necessary rights;
  • Comply with these Terms and the Community Rules;
  • Interact respectfully and constructively with other members;
  • Not impersonate another author or a real public figure;
  • Report any inappropriate content they encounter on the Platform.

Part III

III. CONTENT MODERATION POLICY

Article 15 – Moderation Principles

Pulsely Stories implements a mixed moderation system, combining community reporting and intervention by the administration team, in order to preserve the quality and safety of the reading and writing environment.

Article 16 – Story Moderation (Hosting Provider Status)

Stories published by authors are not subject to systematic prior validation before publication. Pulsely Stories acts in this capacity as a hosting provider.

However, once content is reported or identified by the team as contrary to the Terms or Community Rules, Pulsely Stories reserves the right to:

  • Remove or disable access to the content concerned;
  • Temporarily suspend or permanently terminate the offending user's account;
  • Restrict the visibility of certain content without immediate removal, if the situation warrants it;
  • Cooperate with competent authorities when required by law.

Article 17 – Podcast Moderation (Publisher Status)

Podcast content is subject to prior validation by the Platform administrator before any publication. The administrator reviews submitted content against the Terms, Community Rules and Platform values.

Validation criteria include:

  • Compliance with the Platform's ethical and Islamic values;
  • Absence of prohibited content as set out in Article 13;
  • Respect for intellectual property rights (music, voices, recordings);
  • Minimum technical quality of the audio content.

In the event of rejection, the author will be notified by email and may submit a modified version of their content.

Article 18 – Reporting Procedure

Any user identifying content contrary to the Terms, Community Rules or applicable laws may report it via:

  • The reporting button integrated into each publication on the Platform;
  • The dedicated email address: contact@pulselystories.com.

Any report must be substantiated (description of the issue, URL of the reported content, reason for the report) to be processed effectively. Abusive or bad-faith reports may result in sanctions against the person who submitted the report.

Article 19 – Appeals

Any user whose content has been removed or whose account has been suspended or terminated may contest this decision by submitting a reasoned request to: contact@pulselystories.com.

Pulsely Stories undertakes to review any appeal within a reasonable timeframe and to communicate its decision to the user by email.