Terms of Service

Effective October 4, 2026.

These Terms are an agreement between you and Brenden Hudgins ("we", "us"), who runs VideoCup at this website (the "service"). By making an account, or by using the service, you agree to them and to the Privacy Notice. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

1. Who may use the service

You must be at least 13 to use the service and at least 18 to have a creator account. If you are under 18, you may use it only with the permission of a parent or guardian, who agrees to these Terms for you. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13; if we learn that we have, we delete it. You may not use the service if the law bars you from it, or if we have closed an account of yours for breaking these Terms.

2. How the service works

VideoCup is peer to peer, and every video is temporary. Each video has an end time, at most seven days after it is published; at that time it is deleted from our server and from the devices holding it. While you watch a video, your device keeps it in memory and sends pieces of it to other viewers, and those viewers can see your device's network address while they exchange pieces with it. Do not watch or pass on a video you believe is unlawful: report it instead.

Our server keeps copies only of the videos of creators we choose to host. Other creators' videos are held by their own devices or servers, and by the viewers watching them, for as long as any of them holds a copy. A channel's videos appear on our playlist only once the channel is approved. We keep no backups of videos.

3. Your account

Use an email address you control, keep your password private, and have only one account. You are responsible for what is done with your account; tell us at once if you think someone else has used it. A viewer account saves the channels you follow and your settings for the website. A creator account also connects a VideoCup Studio channel. We decide which channels our playlist lists and whose videos we host, and we may change those decisions at any time.

4. Your videos and the rights you need

You keep ownership of your videos. So that we can host, list and show them, you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive license to store, copy, transmit, display and distribute each video you publish or host through the service, for as long as it is available and for any further time we must keep it by law. You also allow other users to watch your videos through the service and to pass them on to other viewers until they end.

For every video you publish or host, you promise that:

• you made it, or you own or have licensed every right needed to share it this way, including the rights to any music, footage, images, artwork and trademarks in it;
• everyone who can be identified in it agreed to appear in it as it is shown; and
• it breaks no law and none of these Terms.

5. What is not allowed

You may not publish, host, share or link to anything that:

• is illegal, or encourages or helps anyone to break the law;
• sexually exploits or endangers a child in any way. We report child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), as federal law requires, and preserve what the law requires us to keep;
• shows nudity or sexual activity of a person who did not agree to it being shared, including a fake or computer-generated image of a real person;
• is sexually explicit;
• infringes anyone's copyright, trademark, privacy or publicity rights, or that you otherwise have no right to share;
• threatens, harasses or incites violence against anyone, or promotes terrorism or violent extremism;
• shares someone's private information without their permission;
• impersonates anyone, or misleads people about who made it; or
• is spam, a scam, or carries malware.

You also may not attack, overload or disrupt the service or its network; get around its security, limits or moderation; fake viewers or presence to sway the playlist; use the service to break any law; or open accounts to get around a suspension.

6. Copyright complaints (DMCA)

We respond to notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512). If you believe something on the service infringes your copyright, send a written notice to our designated agent, Brenden Hudgins, at legal@videocup.net, that includes:

1. your physical or electronic signature;
2. the copyrighted work you say is infringed;
3. the material you say infringes it, and enough information for us to find it (for example, the video's link);
4. your name, mailing address, telephone number and email address;
5. a statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and
6. a statement that the information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act for the owner.

When we receive a valid notice, we remove or disable the material and tell the creator.

Counter-notice. If your video was removed and you believe that was a mistake or a misidentification, you may send us a counter-notice that includes: your physical or electronic signature; the material removed and where it appeared; a statement under penalty of perjury that you believe in good faith the material was removed by mistake or misidentification; your name, address and telephone number; and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for your address (or, if you are outside the United States, any judicial district in which we may be found) and will accept service of process from the person who sent the notice. We forward it to that person as the law provides. Because every video ends within seven days, a removed video may no longer exist to restore.

Repeat infringers. We close, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe copyright.

Anyone who knowingly misrepresents that material infringes, or that it was removed by mistake, may be held liable under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).

7. Intimate images shared without consent

If a video shows you, or someone you are authorized to act for, in an intimate image shared without consent, including a fake or computer-generated one, ask us to remove it at legal@videocup.net. Include your physical or electronic signature; enough information to find the video (for example, its link); a brief statement that you believe in good faith that it is an intimate visual depiction shared without consent; and how to reach you. We remove it, and make reasonable efforts to remove known identical copies, within 48 hours of receiving a valid request, as the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act requires.

8. Reports, moderation and enforcement

Report a video from the website, or write to legal@videocup.net. We may, with or without notice, remove or stop hosting any content, stop listing a channel, and suspend or close an account, and we keep a record of what we did and why. We are not required to watch or review content before it appears, but we act on what we find and on what is reported to us. If we suspend your account, your account page says why and lets you appeal. You may close your account at any time from your account page.

9. Privacy

The Privacy Notice says what we keep about you and why. It is part of these Terms.

10. The service is provided "as is"

The service is an early test version. To the fullest extent the law allows, it is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not promise that the service will be available, secure or free of errors, that a video will stay available until its end time, or that anything will be kept. Videos are their creators' own: we do not endorse them and are not responsible for them.

11. Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not responsible for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential harm or loss, or for lost data, arising from the service or these Terms. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes any right you have, or any liability we have, that cannot be waived, limited or excluded under the law that applies to you, including the law of the State of New Jersey.

12. Your responsibility to us

To the extent the law allows, you agree to defend and indemnify us against claims and losses arising from content you publish or host, or from your breaking these Terms or the law.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may change these Terms. When we do, we change the effective date above and, for a significant change, tell you by email or on your account page. To keep using your account, you will be asked to accept the new Terms.

14. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey and applicable federal law of the United States, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute about them or the service will be decided in the state or federal courts located in New Jersey, and you and we consent to the jurisdiction of those courts. Before bringing a claim, please write to us at legal@videocup.net so we can try to resolve it.

15. Everything else

These Terms and the Privacy Notice are the whole agreement between you and us about the service. If a court finds part of them unenforceable, the rest still applies. Not enforcing part of them is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms; we may transfer ours to whoever takes over the service.

Contact

Brenden Hudgins, legal@videocup.net.