Acceptable use
The rule behind the rules
Do not use a station to break the law, to harm people, or to damage the service for other customers. Almost everything below follows from that, and where something is not listed, that sentence is what we will apply.
You must not
- Broadcast anything you do not hold the rights or licences for
- Broadcast material that incites violence or hatred against people, or that harasses or threatens someone
- Broadcast sexual content involving children, or any content that sexualises children. We report this to the authorities. There is no warning and no appeal
- Impersonate another broadcaster, another organisation, or us
- Use a station to distribute malware, or to host files that have nothing to do with broadcasting
- Attempt to reach another customer's station, our servers, or any part of the system you have not been given access to
- Resell stations as your own hosting service without agreeing it with us first. Ask. We are not against it
- Use automated means to inflate your listener numbers
Music licensing is yours
Worth its own heading because it is the one people get wrong. Your payment to us covers hosting. It does not license any music. Broadcasting recorded music almost everywhere requires a licence from the collecting societies in your country, and that is your responsibility whatever you pay us and whether or not your station is on the nonprofit rate.
Any stream host that implies otherwise is not describing your legal position accurately.
Technical limits
Your plan states a listener count and a bitrate. Exceeding the listener count means additional listeners are refused rather than your bill increasing unexpectedly. Sending a higher bitrate than your plan allows is refused rather than silently downgraded.
Do not attempt to work around either limit, for instance by running several encoders into one station or by splitting an audience across stations to avoid a plan. If you need more, the plans are there, and if none fits, ask us.
Copyright notices
To report infringing material, email [email protected] with the station hostname, what the material is, when you heard it, and a statement that you own the rights or act for the owner. Include how we can reach you.
We pass valid notices to the station, give them a chance to respond where the law allows it, and remove material or suspend a station where it does not. A station that receives repeated valid notices is closed.
We will not act on a notice that does not identify the material or the sender, and we will tell the station who complained unless we are prohibited from doing so.
Reporting a station
Email the same address with the hostname and what you heard or found. If it is urgent, say so in the subject line and we will look sooner. Reports about the sexualisation of children go straight to the top of the queue at any hour.
What we do about a breach
Where the problem is something you can fix, we tell you and give you a chance to fix it. Where it is not, or where leaving a station on air would cause real harm, we suspend it and then tell you.
A suspension for a breach covers the whole account. Every station stops broadcasting, and its media, playlists, hostname and credentials are kept. You can still sign in to pay and to write to support, and nothing is charged until it is lifted. Closing an account for a serious or repeated breach deletes the media permanently. The terms list every reason we suspend or close an account.
If you think we have got it wrong, reply and say so. We would rather reverse a decision than defend a bad one.