Terms of Service

Welcome to iCast. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the iCast website, apps, embeddable player and related services (together, the "Service"). Please read them carefully: by creating an account or using the Service you enter into a binding agreement with us.

1. Who we are

The Service is provided by Alessandro Mori, operating under the brand Innovative Studios ("iCast", "we", "us"), with its address at Via Example 1, 00100 Roma (RM), Italy. You can contact us at admin.icast@gmail.com. This address is also our single point of contact for users and for authorities under Articles 11 and 12 of the EU Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, "DSA"); we can be contacted in English and Italian.

2. Accepting these Terms and changes

You may use the Service only if you can form a binding contract with us. If you use the Service on behalf of a company or organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to accept these Terms on its behalf. We may update these Terms to reflect changes to the Service, the law or our practices. For material changes we will give you at least 30 days' notice by e-mail or in the Service before they take effect, unless a change is required by law or needed urgently to address security or abuse. If you don't agree with the new Terms you can delete your account at any time before they take effect.

3. Eligibility and your account

• You must be at least 14 years old to create an account. If you are under 18, or under the age of majority where you live, you confirm that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms. Anyone may watch public videos without an account.
• Accounts are created with Google Sign-In. You must keep your Google account secure; you are responsible for activity on your iCast account. Tell us immediately at icast.support@gmail.com if you suspect unauthorised access.
• Before you can publish, you must complete your channel (name, unique handle, date of birth) and accept these Terms. Your channel name and handle must not impersonate others or infringe their rights.
• You may not create an account if we previously terminated one of yours for serious or repeated violations, unless we agree in writing.

4. Using iCast

We grant you a personal, worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable licence to access and use the Service as permitted by these Terms. You agree not to:

• download, copy, record or redistribute content except where the Service offers a feature to do so or the rights holder has given permission;
• access the Service with robots, scrapers or other automated means, except public search engines respecting our robots.txt;
• artificially inflate views, likes, comments, subscribers or other metrics, or pay or incentivise others to do so;
• circumvent, disable or interfere with security features, age restrictions, rate limits or access controls;
• upload malware, or attempt to gain unauthorised access to our systems or other users' accounts;
• use the Service to break the law or the Community Guidelines.

5. Your content

5.1 Ownership

You keep all ownership rights in the videos, thumbnails, text, comments and other material you upload ("Content"). We don't claim ownership of your Content.

5.2 Licence you give us

By uploading Content you grant iCast a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable licence to host, store, reproduce, transcode, adapt (for example to create thumbnails, previews and different formats), publish, display, perform and distribute that Content, solely to operate, improve, secure and promote the Service. This licence ends when you delete the Content or your account, except: (a) for a commercially reasonable period needed to remove copies from our systems and backups; (b) where we must keep the Content to comply with the law, resolve disputes or handle a moderation appeal; and (c) for comments you made on others' videos that remain part of a conversation, unless you delete them.

5.3 Licence you give other users

You grant each user a non-exclusive licence to watch and stream your public and unlisted Content through the Service, and through the embeddable player if you allow embedding. If you mark a video as Creative Commons — Attribution (CC BY 4.0), you also license it to everyone under that licence.

5.4 Your responsibilities

• You confirm you own or have all the rights, licences and permissions needed for your Content — including for any music, footage and images it contains — and the consent of identifiable people appearing in it where required by law.
• You must correctly tell us whether each video is made for kids (see the Kids & Family Policy) and whether it contains paid promotion, and you must disclose realistic altered or synthetic content (including AI-generated content), in line with applicable law such as the EU AI Act.
• iCast is a platform for long-form video. Videos must be MP4 files of at least the minimum length shown on the upload page. Re-uploading other people's content, or splitting or padding content to meet the minimum length, isn't allowed.

6. Audio Library

Tracks in the iCast Audio Library may be used in videos you publish on iCast according to the licence shown on each track ("Free to use on iCast", CC0, CC BY or Licensed). You may not distribute Audio Library tracks on their own, sell them, register them with content-identification systems or claim them as your own. For CC BY tracks you must include the attribution shown. If you submit a track to the Audio Library, you confirm that you control all rights in the recording and the composition, and you grant iCast and its users the licence you selected.

7. Content moderation

We review Content and accounts to keep iCast safe and lawful. We act on notices from users, rights holders, trusted flaggers and authorities, and on our own initiative. Our tools include automated measures (for example, holding comments containing many links for review and rate-limiting abusive activity) and human review by the iCast Trust & Safety team. Depending on the severity, we may: remove or disable access to Content; age-restrict it; limit its visibility or eligibility for recommendations; disable comments; remove a verification badge; suspend or terminate an account. When we restrict your Content or account we will send you a statement of reasons explaining the decision, the facts relied on, whether automated means were used, the legal or contractual ground, and how to appeal, as required by Article 17 DSA — except where the law prohibits notice or the content is deceptive high-volume commercial spam.

We handle notices of illegal content under Article 16 DSA: anyone can report a video, comment or channel from the Service, and rights holders can use the procedure in our Copyright & Takedown Policy. We process notices diligently, objectively and in a timely manner, and we inform the notifier of our decision. We may suspend, for a reasonable period and after a warning, the processing of notices from people who frequently submit manifestly unfounded notices, and the accounts of users who frequently provide manifestly illegal content.

8. Appeals and complaints

If you disagree with a moderation decision — or with our decision not to act on your notice — you can file a complaint free of charge within six months by writing to admin.icast@gmail.com with the link to the content or account concerned and your reasons. Complaints are reviewed by qualified staff, not solely by automated means, and we will reverse our decision without undue delay if the complaint shows we were wrong. You may also refer the dispute to an out-of-court dispute settlement body certified under Article 21 DSA (in Italy, certified by AGCOM as Digital Services Coordinator), and you always keep your right to go to court.

9. Recommendations and ranking

iCast uses recommender systems to organise Home, Up next, Trending and Search. The main parameters, and how you can modify or influence them, are explained in How Recommendations Work. You can switch off personalised recommendations at any time in Settings → Privacy; when off, we rank content without profiling. We don't accept payment for higher ranking.

10. Verification badge

The green iCast Emerald badge indicates that we have confirmed a channel is the authentic presence of the creator, brand or public figure it represents. It isn't an endorsement. Badges are granted and may be removed at our discretion under the Verification Badge Policy. Using the badge, or anything confusingly similar, in your name, picture, banner or thumbnails is prohibited.

11. iCast Points

• Signed-in users with a completed channel earn iCast Points for taking part in the Service — for example watching videos, liking, commenting, subscribing, posting, publishing videos, going live and opening iCast every day. The current activities, amounts and daily limits are shown on your Points page; we may change them at any time, prospectively.
• Points can be redeemed for periods of iCast Premium and for any other reward we offer on the Points or Premium pages. Points have no cash value: they can't be bought, sold, transferred, exchanged for money or redeemed outside the Service.
• Points must be earned through genuine use. Automated or artificial activity (scripts, bots, fake accounts, coordinated or repetitive actions, playing videos without watching) is prohibited; we may refuse, cancel or remove points and Premium periods obtained this way and suspend the accounts involved.
• Points are personal and are deleted with your account. We may end the Points programme with at least 30 days' notice; you can redeem your balance during the notice period.

12. iCast Premium

• What it is. iCast Premium is an optional membership with the benefits listed on the Premium page. The core Service — watching, uploading, commenting and subscribing — stays free for everyone. We may improve or change Premium benefits; if we materially reduce them during a paid period we will tell you and you may cancel with a pro-rata refund of the unused part.
• Buying Premium. You must be 18 or older to buy Premium. Paid plans are billed in advance, monthly or yearly, at the price shown before you pay (including VAT where applicable). Payments are processed by Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd.; we never see or store your full card details.
• Automatic renewal and cancellation. Paid plans renew automatically at the end of each period at the then-current price until you cancel. We will tell you in advance of any price change, which applies from the next period. You can cancel at any time from the Premium page ("Manage subscription"); you keep Premium until the end of the period already paid, and no further payments are taken.
• Right of withdrawal. If you are a consumer in the EU, you have a 14-day right of withdrawal from distance contracts. Because Premium is a digital service that starts immediately, at checkout you expressly ask us to begin straight away and acknowledge that you lose the right of withdrawal once the service has started (Art. 59(1)(o) of the Italian Consumer Code and Art. 16(m) of Directive 2011/83/EU). This doesn't affect your rights if the service is faulty or not as described.
• Refunds. Except where required by law or stated in these Terms, payments for periods already started are non-refundable. Contact icast.support@gmail.com with any billing question.
• Premium with points. Premium periods redeemed with iCast Points are free, don't renew automatically and end at the date shown on the Premium page.
• If your account is terminated for a serious breach of these Terms, Premium ends with it; you'll be refunded the unused part of a paid period unless the law allows otherwise.

13. Tips and creator payouts

• Sending tips. If a creator has enabled tips, you can send them a voluntary payment ("tip", including "Super Chat" during live streams) from their videos, posts, live streams or channel. You must be 18 or older. Tips are gifts to support the creator: they don't buy any product, service, content or special treatment, and creators aren't obliged to do anything in return. Because a tip is completed and passed on to the creator as soon as it's paid, tips are non-refundable except in cases of fraud, error or where the law requires a refund.
• Receiving tips. To receive tips you must be 18 or older, have a channel in good standing and open a payout account with our payment partner Stripe (Stripe Connect), accepting the Stripe Connected Account Agreement. Stripe verifies your identity and pays tips out to your bank account; iCast never holds your money.
• Our fee. iCast keeps a platform fee of 10% of each tip; the rest is transferred to the creator, net of any fees Stripe charges for the payout. The fee shown before each tip applies. We may change the fee with 30 days' notice.
• Taxes. Creators are responsible for declaring tips they receive and for any taxes, social contributions and registrations that apply to them. We may collect and report information to tax authorities where the law requires it (for example under Directive (EU) 2021/514, "DAC7").
• Misuse. Tips may not be used for money laundering, to pay for goods or services outside iCast, to buy engagement, or to pay a creator to break the law or our Guidelines. We may refuse or reverse tips, disable tips on a channel and work with Stripe and the authorities when we suspect misuse. A chargeback or refund ordered by the card issuer is deducted from the creator's balance.

14. iCast's intellectual property

The iCast name, logo, the Emerald verification badge, the design of the Service and its software are owned by Alessandro Mori / Innovative Studios and protected by intellectual-property laws. These Terms don't give you any right to use them except as needed to use the Service as intended (for example, embedding the player or linking to your channel). If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them without obligation to you.

15. Suspension and termination

You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time in Settings → Your data. We may suspend or terminate your account, with prior notice and a statement of reasons where required, if you materially or repeatedly breach these Terms or the Community Guidelines, if we're required to by law, or if your account creates a risk of harm to users, third parties or iCast. If we terminate your account for reasons other than a breach by you, we'll give you reasonable advance notice so you can download your data where the law allows.

16. Changes to the Service

We continuously improve iCast and may add, change or remove features. If a change materially and negatively affects your use of the Service, we'll give you reasonable advance notice, except in urgent situations such as preventing abuse, responding to legal requirements or addressing security issues.

17. Liability

We provide the Service with reasonable care and skill. Content on iCast is the responsibility of the person who uploaded it; as a hosting service provider, we're not liable for user Content unless we have actual knowledge of its illegality and fail to act expeditiously, in accordance with Article 6 DSA. To the extent permitted by law, iCast is not liable for indirect or unforeseeable losses, or for loss of profits, revenues, data or business opportunities. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury, for fraud, for wilful misconduct or gross negligence (Article 1229 of the Italian Civil Code), or any other liability that cannot be excluded by law, nor does it affect your statutory rights as a consumer.

18. Responsibility for claims

If you use the Service for business purposes, you agree to hold iCast harmless from third-party claims and related costs arising from your Content or your breach of these Terms, to the extent permitted by law.

19. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by Italian law. If you are a consumer residing in the European Union, you also benefit from the mandatory protections of the law of your country of residence, and you can bring proceedings in the courts of your place of residence or domicile, which are also the competent courts for any action against you (Art. 66-bis of the Italian Consumer Code). For users acting as businesses, the courts of Rome, Italy have exclusive jurisdiction.

20. General

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision isn't a waiver. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms without our consent; we may transfer ours to an entity that takes over the Service, provided your rights are not reduced. These Terms, together with the policies linked here, are the entire agreement between you and iCast regarding the Service. The English version of these Terms prevails over any translation.