TERMS OF USE
The deal, in plain words
The short version. This community is free and we run it as a favour to the field, not as a business. We decide who is in it. We don't check anyone out for you, we don't stand behind what members say, and we can't promise the site is always up. Treat what you read here as coming from a stranger with an interesting job, not from a vetted advisor. Everything below says that properly.
1. Who these terms are with
These terms are an agreement between you and Melange Space Technologies ("Melange", "we", "us"), a company registered in Japan, which operates Lunar Startup Community (the "Community") — this website, the join process, the Discord server and the online meetups.
By submitting the join form, or by taking part in the Community, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree to them, do not apply and do not take part. How we handle your personal data is set out separately in our privacy notice, which forms part of these terms.
You confirm that you are at least 16 years old and able to enter into this agreement. If you are taking part on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you are authorised to accept these terms for it.
2. The Community is free, and offered as-is
Membership costs nothing. There is no subscription, no tier and no paid channel, and you are not buying anything from us. In return, and to the fullest extent the law allows, the Community is provided "as is" and "as available", with no warranties of any kind, express or implied — including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy or non-infringement. Where you take part as a consumer, any rights your national law gives you that cannot be excluded are unaffected by this paragraph.
We do not promise that the site, the Discord server or any meetup will be available, uninterrupted, secure or error-free, that any particular person will be in the room, or that a meetup will take place on any particular date. We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of the Community, or the whole of it, at any time and without notice or liability.
3. Membership is at our discretion
We decide who joins. We may accept or refuse any application, at any time, for any reason or none, and we are not obliged to give a reason. We may likewise suspend or remove any member, and revoke access to the Discord server, at any time and without notice, where we consider it appropriate. No decision we make about membership creates any right, expectation or claim in your favour.
Reading an application is not vetting. We do not verify anyone's identity, employer, role, qualifications, claims or intentions. Membership is not an endorsement, a reference, or any statement by us that a person or their company is trustworthy, solvent, competent or who they say they are.
4. What we ask of you
- Give accurate information when you apply, and keep it current.
- Be someone people can think out loud around. No harassment, discrimination, abuse or threats.
- No cold pitching in direct messages. If you want to sell something, say so openly and let people opt in.
- Treat what is said in the Community as not for public repeat. This is an expectation we set, not a guarantee we can enforce — see section 6.
- Do not post anything unlawful, infringing, confidential to someone else, export-controlled, or covered by an obligation you owe another party.
- Do not scrape, bulk-collect or republish member information, and do not use the Community to build a mailing or recruiting list.
- Do not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the site, its admin area or its data, or to disrupt it.
You are responsible for everything you post and for anything done through your account.
5. What you post
You keep ownership of what you write and share. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce and display it for the purpose of operating the Community — including keeping meetup notes and archives — and to allow other members to see it. That licence lasts as long as we need it for that purpose and ends when the content is removed, except for copies in backups or where a legal claim requires us to keep it.
We may remove any content at any time, and we are not obliged to store or return anything.
6. What members say is not ours
The Community exists so that people can talk candidly. That means most of what you encounter comes from other members, not from us.
- We do not monitor, endorse, verify or take responsibility for anything a member says or does, in the Discord server, in a meetup, or in private afterwards.
- Nothing in the Community is professional, legal, financial, investment, engineering, safety or regulatory advice, and nothing in it is an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security or interest in any company. Take your own advice before acting.
- We ask members to keep things confidential, but we cannot control what any member does. Do not share anything you could not afford to see repeated. No confidentiality agreement, non-disclosure agreement, partnership, joint venture, agency or employment relationship is created between you and us, or between you and any other member, by these terms or by taking part.
- Any dealing you enter into with another member is between the two of you. We are not a party to it and take no responsibility for it.
7. Other people's services
The Community runs on services we do not control — Discord for the day-to-day, Zoom or Google Meet for meetups, and the providers listed in our privacy notice. Your use of those services is governed by their terms, and we are not responsible for them, for their availability, or for anything that happens on them.
8. Limitation of liability
Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for wilful misconduct or gross negligence, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded. Where you deal with us as a consumer, your statutory rights are unaffected, and any provision below applies only so far as the law of your country permits.
Subject to that, and to the fullest extent permitted by law:
- we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss, or for any loss of profit, revenue, business, opportunity, goodwill, anticipated saving or data, however caused;
- we are not liable for any loss arising from the conduct, statements, omissions or content of any member or third party, from any dealing you enter into with a member, from any reliance you place on something said in the Community, or from any disclosure of information you chose to share in it;
- we are not liable for any interruption, unavailability, delay, deletion or loss of data affecting the site, the Discord server or a meetup;
- and our total liability to you, in aggregate across everything arising out of or in connection with these terms and the Community and on any basis whatsoever, is limited to JPY 10,000.
That cap reflects the fact that the Community is free, that we receive nothing from you, and that we run it alongside our actual work. If the law that applies to you does not permit one of these limits, that limit simply does not apply to you — the rest of this section still does, and the same limits continue to apply to everyone else.
9. Your responsibility to us
If you take part in the course of a business — which is almost everyone here — you agree to indemnify us against any claim, demand, loss, liability or reasonable cost, including legal fees, brought by a third party and arising out of your breach of these terms, your content, your conduct in the Community, or your dealings with another member.
This does not apply to anyone taking part as a consumer, and it does not apply to any claim that results from our own breach, negligence or wrongdoing.
10. Leaving, and being removed
You can leave whenever you like: leave the Discord server, and email us if you would also like your application deleted. We may end your membership at any time under section 3. Sections 5 (for content already posted), 6, 8, 9, 11 and 12 survive the end of your membership.
11. Changes to these terms
We may change these terms. If a change materially affects your rights or obligations, we will tell members by email or in the Discord server, and say when it takes effect, at least 14 days beforehand. Continuing to take part after that date means you accept the change. If you do not accept it, leave the Community before then; that is the remedy available to you, and nothing stops you leaving at any point afterwards either.
Changes we make only to correct wording, or that are purely in your favour, take effect when we publish them.
12. Law, and where disputes go
These terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or the Community — including non-contractual ones — are governed by the laws of Japan. The Tokyo District Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction as the court of first instance.
If you are a consumer resident in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another country whose law gives you the right to bring proceedings in your local courts or to rely on the mandatory protections of your own law, nothing here removes that right.
Before starting any formal proceedings, please email us. Most things are quicker to fix that way.
13. The rest
- Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, it is modified to the minimum extent needed to make it enforceable, or removed, and the remainder stays in force.
- No waiver. If we do not enforce something, that is not a waiver of it.
- Entire agreement. These terms and the privacy notice are the whole agreement between us about the Community, and replace anything said beforehand.
- Assignment. You may not transfer your membership. We may transfer these terms to a successor of our business.
- No third-party rights. No one other than you and us may enforce these terms.
- Language. These terms are written in English. Any translation is for convenience, and the English version governs.
14. Getting in touch
Email hello@lunarstartups.space. A person reads it.