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Terms of Service

Draft — pending legal review. This document is a working scaffold and is not yet binding. It will be reviewed and signed off by counsel before publication. If you need a finalised version for due-diligence, contact lectora@fjordbyte.no.

Status: DRAFT — pending legal review. See README.md for marker conventions.

Last updated: 20 May 2026 Effective from: 20 May 2026 Version: 1.0 (draft)

1. About these terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Lectora platform — an AI-assisted grading and feedback tool for higher education — operated by Fjordbyte AS, a Norwegian company (org. nr. 933 773 477) with registered address c/o DNB Bank ASA, Solheimsgaten 7C, 5058 Bergen.

By creating an account, signing in, or otherwise using Lectora, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

These Terms apply to two distinct usage modes:

  • Individual mode (PAT) — you sign up yourself and connect Lectora to Canvas using a Personal Access Token you generate.
  • Institutional mode (LTI) — your institution has signed a separate enterprise agreement and made Lectora available to you via Canvas LTI integration.

In institutional mode, the Master Subscription Agreement between Lectora and your institution governs the commercial relationship, the Data Processing Agreement (DPA) governs data handling, and these Terms apply to your individual use of the service. Where these Terms conflict with an institutional agreement, the institutional agreement prevails for institutional users.

2. Definitions

  • "Lectora", "we", "us", "our" — Fjordbyte AS and its Lectora service.
  • "You", "your" — the natural person using Lectora (educator, teaching assistant, administrator) under these Terms.
  • "Institution" — a higher-education institution (university, college, business school) that has signed an enterprise agreement with us.
  • "Canvas" — the Canvas LMS by Instructure, Inc., to which Lectora connects.
  • "Content" — material accessible via Lectora, including assignments, rubrics, student submissions, AI-generated drafts, your edits, and reference files you upload.
  • "Student Work" — student submissions and related materials uploaded to or fetched into Lectora.

3. Eligibility and account creation

To use Lectora you must:

  • Be at least 18 years old or have reached the age of majority in your jurisdiction
  • Be a member of the teaching staff (or in a recognised teaching-assistant role) at a recognised higher-education institution
  • Provide accurate registration information and keep it up to date
  • Keep your account credentials and Canvas Personal Access Token confidential
  • Notify us immediately at lectora@fjordbyte.no if you suspect unauthorised access to your account

You are responsible for all activity on your account. If your account is shared, suspended, compromised, or used in violation of these Terms, you are responsible for the consequences.

4. Your authority to upload student work (CRITICAL — PAT mode)

If you are using Lectora in individual (PAT) mode, you represent and warrant that:

  1. You have authority from your institution to use third-party AI grading tools with student data;
  2. Such use is permitted by your institution's data protection policies and applicable law (including GDPR);
  3. You have informed your students (or have institutional permission rendering separate notice unnecessary) that their submissions will be processed by Lectora;
  4. You are operating as the data controller — or under delegated authority from your institution as controller — for the Student Work you upload, and Lectora processes it as your processor on your instructions.

If you are uncertain about any of these warranties, do not upload Student Work and contact your institution's data protection officer first.

In institutional (LTI) mode, these warranties are made by your institution under the Master Subscription Agreement and DPA, not by you individually.

5. Your subscription and payment (paid plans)

[REVIEW — these provisions apply to paid plans. Confirm against actual commercial structure: per-course one-time purchase via Stripe (per code), trial periods, refunds, institutional licensing.]

Lectora may offer free trials, course-by-course purchases, and institutional licenses. The specific terms of your subscription — price, billing cycle, included features, trial duration, refund eligibility — are presented to you at purchase time and form part of these Terms.

  • Billing: through Stripe. You authorise Lectora and Stripe to charge the payment method on file.
  • Trials: where offered, convert automatically at expiry unless cancelled before. We will notify you [REVIEW — N days] in advance.
  • Refunds: per the refund policy presented at purchase, or as required by Norwegian consumer protection law (Forbrukerkjøpsloven, Angrerettloven where applicable).
  • Taxes: prices are exclusive of VAT/MVA unless stated otherwise. Norwegian VAT (25%) is added for Norwegian customers; reverse charge or local VAT may apply for foreign customers.
  • Failed payments: we may suspend service after notice if payment fails. Suspension does not relieve you of payment obligations.

For institutional customers, billing is governed by the Master Subscription Agreement.

6. Acceptable use

You agree NOT to use Lectora to:

  • Violate law or third-party rights — including copyright, privacy law, or contractual obligations
  • Upload student work without authority — see Section 4
  • Upload data of children under 16 — Lectora is for higher education
  • Attempt to extract, copy, or republish student submissions or AI-generated content outside the legitimate teaching workflow
  • Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to discover the source code or models powering Lectora
  • Bypass rate limits, security controls, or feature gating
  • Interfere with the service — denial-of-service, spam, malware, exploitation attempts
  • Submit prompts designed to extract training data, jailbreak underlying AI models, or generate content that violates the upstream AI providers' acceptable use policies (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Vertex AI)
  • Use Lectora to generate content that defames, harasses, or discriminates against any student
  • Misrepresent AI-drafted content as fully human-authored to your students or to your institution — see Section 7
  • Use Lectora for purposes other than course assessment in higher education without our written consent
  • Resell, sub-license, or commercially distribute access to Lectora

Violations may result in suspension, termination, and where applicable referral to your institution or relevant authorities.

7. AI-generated content — accuracy, your role, and disclosure

Lectora drafts grades, written feedback, and other educational content using upstream AI models. You acknowledge and agree that:

  • AI output is a draft, not a final grade. Every grade and every piece of feedback presented to a student MUST be reviewed and explicitly approved by you, the educator, before publication. Lectora is built around this human-in-the-loop principle; circumventing it is a breach of these Terms.
  • AI output can be inaccurate, incomplete, or biased. You are the qualified educator; you make the final pedagogical judgement.
  • You are responsible for the grades and feedback you publish under your name, regardless of whether Lectora drafted them. Lectora is not a substitute for educator expertise.
  • Disclosure to students. Where institutional policy requires it, you must disclose to students that AI tools were used in drafting feedback. Lectora does not publish on your behalf; you decide what to disclose.
  • No guarantee of grading consistency beyond what is achievable from the rubric and reference materials you provide.

8. Your data and intellectual property

8.1 Your content stays yours

You (or your institution) retain all rights, title, and interest in the Student Work, assignments, rubrics, reference materials, and other Content you upload to Lectora. You grant Lectora a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, process, transmit, and display this Content solely to operate the service for you and as described in our Privacy Policy.

8.2 We will not train AI on your content

Lectora does not use Student Work, assignments, rubrics, your edits, or any other customer Content to train, fine-tune, or improve any AI model, whether ours or our subprocessors'. This commitment is contractually backed by:

  • Our agreements with upstream AI providers (OpenAI EU API, Google Cloud Vertex AI) which prohibit training on customer data
  • Our use of zero-data-retention configurations on AI API calls where supported

8.3 Lectora's own IP

The Lectora platform — its code, design, AI orchestration logic, prompts, and brand — is owned by Fjordbyte AS. These Terms grant you only the right to use the service, not any ownership in it.

8.4 Feedback and suggestions

If you send us suggestions or feedback about Lectora, you grant us a perpetual, royalty-free license to use them to improve the product. We will not identify you publicly without your permission.

9. Privacy and data protection

Our Privacy Policy describes what data we collect, why, and how we protect it. By using Lectora you confirm you have read and understood it.

For institutional users, our Data Processing Agreement with your institution governs the processing of personal data; the Privacy Policy supplements but does not override it.

For individual (PAT) users, the Privacy Policy is the primary instrument governing our processing of personal data you submit. You are responsible for any further notice or consent required vis-à-vis your students or institution.

10. Service availability

We aim for high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted service.

  • We may perform planned maintenance with advance notice where practical.
  • Unplanned downtime, third-party outages (Canvas, OpenAI, Google, Vercel, Supabase), and force majeure events may affect availability.
  • For institutional customers, specific service-level commitments are in the Master Subscription Agreement, not these Terms.

11. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

[REVIEW — Norwegian counsel to confirm liability caps and warranty disclaimers align with Norwegian consumer law (Forbrukerkjøpsloven) and EU consumer protections. The clauses below are typical SaaS templates and may need modification.]

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

  • Lectora is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied (including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, non-infringement).
  • We disclaim liability for the substantive content of AI-generated drafts. As stated in Section 7, you are responsible for reviewing and approving every grade and piece of feedback before publication.
  • We do not warrant that Lectora will meet your specific requirements, that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that defects will be corrected.

Limitation of liability: to the maximum extent permitted by law, our aggregate liability arising out of or relating to these Terms or the service is limited to the greater of (a) the amounts paid by you to us in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim or (b) [REVIEW — typical: EUR 100 / NOK 1,000]. We are not liable for indirect, consequential, special, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, data, or goodwill.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where exclusion or limitation is prohibited by mandatory law (e.g. gross negligence, intentional misconduct, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or rights of consumers under Norwegian consumer law).

12. Indemnification

[REVIEW — common in B2B SaaS, less common in B2C. Confirm applicability for individual (PAT) users.]

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Fjordbyte AS from claims, damages, and costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of:

  • Your breach of these Terms, including the warranties in Section 4
  • Your violation of any law or third-party right in connection with your use of Lectora
  • Content you upload that infringes third-party rights or violates law

13. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to Lectora:

  • For breach of these Terms (with notice where practical)
  • For non-payment after notice
  • If continued service would expose us to legal risk
  • If your institution's enterprise agreement is terminated and you were accessing Lectora under that agreement

You may terminate by closing your account at any time. Sections that by their nature survive termination — IP ownership (8), confidentiality, indemnification (12), liability limits (11), governing law (15) — survive.

Upon termination, we will delete or return your data per the retention policy in the Privacy Policy and, for institutional users, the DPA. [REVIEW — implementable retention/deletion endpoints required before publishing these Terms.]

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. Material changes are notified to you by email (using the address on file) and through an in-app notice. For changes that affect your rights or obligations, we will give you at least [REVIEW — typical 30 days] notice. Continued use after the change takes effect constitutes acceptance; if you do not accept, your remedy is to terminate before the change takes effect.

15. Governing law and dispute resolution

[REVIEW — Norwegian counsel to confirm choice-of-law and venue clauses align with EU consumer protection rules for cross-border individual users.]

These Terms are governed by the laws of Norway, excluding conflict-of-law rules and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

Disputes between us and an individual user shall be brought before the courts of Bergen, Norway, with Bergen tingrett as the agreed venue, subject to any mandatory consumer-protection rights that allow you to bring proceedings in your own country of residence.

Disputes between us and an institution are governed by the dispute resolution clause in the Master Subscription Agreement.

You may also submit consumer disputes to the EU Online Dispute Resolution platform at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

16. Miscellaneous

  • Entire agreement: these Terms (together with the Privacy Policy, and for institutional users the MSA and DPA) are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the service, and supersede prior agreements on the same subject.
  • Severability: if any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect.
  • No waiver: failure to enforce any right is not a waiver of that right.
  • Assignment: you may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, with notice to you.
  • Notices to us: send to lectora@fjordbyte.no or by post to c/o DNB Bank ASA, Postboks 7100, 5020 Bergen.
  • Notices to you: by email to the address on file or by in-app notice.
  • Language: these Terms are published in English and Norwegian. In case of conflict, the [REVIEW — typical: Norwegian] version prevails for users in Norway.
  • Force majeure: neither party is liable for failure to perform due to causes beyond reasonable control.

17. Contact

Fjordbyte AS Org. nr. 933 773 477 Address: c/o DNB Bank ASA, Solheimsgaten 7C, 5058 Bergen Postal address: c/o DNB Bank ASA, Postboks 7100, 5020 Bergen Email: lectora@fjordbyte.no