Skip to main content
Zip Solutions

Terms of Service

Guidelines and conditions governing the use of Zip Solutions websites, applications, and accessibility services.

Terms of Service

Last updated: October 2026

Please read these Terms of Service (“Terms”, “Terms of Service”) carefully before using the zipsolutions.org website, the Zip Captions application, or any associated software, extensions, and services operated by Solutions Zip (“Zip Solutions”, “us”, “we”, or “our”).

Your access to and use of our services is conditioned upon your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms. These Terms apply to all visitors, users, educators, event organizers, and others who access or use our services.

By accessing or using any part of the service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you disagree with any part of the terms, you may not access the service.

1. Mission and Permitted Use

Zip Solutions exists to make communication accessible, private, and dignified for everyone. Our tools (including Zip Captions, EasySpeak, EquiBrowse, Zip Solutions Remediator, and related integrations) are provided to support individuals, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, broadcast producers, and community gatherings.

You are welcome to use our public web tools, open-source utilities, and browser extensions for:

  • Personal, academic, and professional communication.
  • Classroom teaching and lecture accessibility.
  • Live event captioning, conferences, and theatrical performances.
  • Broadcast and live-stream graphics production.

You agree to use our services in compliance with all applicable local, provincial, national, and international laws and regulations.

2. User Conduct and Acceptable Use

We believe in fostering inclusive, safe, and respectful environments. When using our websites, hosted relay features, community forums, or applications, you agree not to:

  • Use the services to transmit, display, or generate unlawful, harassing, defamatory, fraudulent, or abusive content.
  • Interfere with, disrupt, or place an unreasonable load on our servers, relay networks, or associated infrastructure.
  • Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any accounts, systems, or connected networks.
  • Circumvent or disable any security, rate-limiting, or verification mechanisms (such as captcha protections).
  • Use automated scrapers or bots to collect information from our services without prior authorization.
  • Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive source code from any proprietary aspects of our infrastructure, except where explicitly permitted by open-source licenses.

3. Privacy and Local-First Processing

Human dignity and privacy are central to our software architecture.

  • On-Device and Browser Processing: Many of our tools, including core speech capture in Zip Captions and local phrase prediction in EasySpeak, are engineered to run locally inside your browser or device without transmitting raw audio to external Zip Solutions servers.
  • Transient Relays: When using room relay features (such as QR attendee captions or vMix bridges), text data is processed transiently in memory to synchronize screens and is not permanently retained or archived by Zip Solutions.
  • Full Privacy Notice: For complete details regarding our data collection practices, retention commitments, and your privacy rights, please consult our Privacy Policy.

4. Intellectual Property and Open Source

  • Open-Source Software: Several of our software applications and repositories are made available under public open-source licenses (such as GPL, AGPL, or MIT) hosted on GitHub. Your rights to inspect, fork, modify, and redistribute those components are governed by their respective open-source license files.
  • Trademarks and Branding: The “Zip Solutions”, “Zip Captions”, “EasySpeak”, “EquiBrowse”, and “Zip Solutions Remediator” names, logos, domain names, site designs, and brand elements remain the exclusive intellectual property of Solutions Zip. Nothing in these Terms grants you permission to use our branding without written consent, except for factual attribution.
  • User Feedback: If you provide suggestions, bug reports, or feature ideas to our team, you grant us the royalty-free, perpetual right to implement and build upon those ideas to improve our open tools for the community.

5. Third-Party Services and Speech Recognition

Our web applications may interface with third-party technologies to deliver speech recognition, translation, or media streaming:

  • Browser Speech Engines: Tools using the browser Web Speech API rely on the speech recognition engine provided by your operating system or browser vendor (such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Apple Safari).
  • Optional Cloud Providers: If you configure optional cloud speech APIs or external language translation keys, your use of those services is subject to the terms and privacy practices of those respective third-party providers.
  • Third-Party Availability: Zip Solutions does not control and is not responsible for the uptime, network latency, or policy changes of third-party speech engines, web browsers, or cloud infrastructure.

6. Disclaimer of Warranties

Our software, websites, and services are provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.

To the fullest extent permissible by applicable law:

  • Zip Solutions disclaims all warranties, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and accuracy.
  • While we strive for exceptional reliability, we do not warrant that our services will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or completely error-free.
  • Automated Captioning Limitations: Automated speech-to-text models can produce transcription inaccuracies due to background noise, accents, technical jargon, or microphone placement. Automated captions should never be solely relied upon in emergency medical situations, life-safety communications, or legal proceedings requiring certified human court reporting.

7. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Solutions Zip, its directors, developers, advisory board members, or contributors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including without limitation:

  • Loss of profits, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses.
  • Damages resulting from your access to, use of, or inability to access or use the services.
  • Errors, interruptions, or delays in real-time speech transcription during live events, classes, or broadcasts.
  • Any unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or content.

In jurisdictions where the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages is restricted, our liability shall be limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

8. Custom Live Events and Service Quotes

For custom event consultations, AV audits, and live event quotes requested through our website:

  • Estimates and proposals provided via our quote form are informational and subject to formal scheduling, venue verification, and written agreement.
  • Requirements such as venue hardware, network bandwidth, and stage audio feeds remain the responsibility of the event venue or organizer unless explicitly contracted otherwise.

9. Changes to These Terms

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. When updates occur, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this document.

For significant changes, we will provide reasonable advance notice through our website or community channels prior to new terms taking effect. By continuing to access or use our services after revisions become active, you agree to be bound by the revised Terms.

10. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of Quebec and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict of law principles.

Any legal dispute, action, or proceeding arising out of or related to these Terms or the services shall be instituted exclusively in the competent courts located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions, feedback, or concerns regarding these Terms of Service, please contact us through our official channels: