Last Updated On: September 20, 2026

Welcome to the LittleChineseReaders.com website. These Terms of Use (“Terms”) are a legal contract between you (“you”) and Little Chinese Readers LLC (“we,” “us,” or “our”) and govern your use of all the text, data, educational materials, information, software, graphics, photographs and other materials (“Materials”) that we make available through this website (“Site”) and the services we provide through it (collectively, the “Services”). If you are agreeing to these Terms as a representative of a school or other entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind that entity and “you” herein refers to that entity.

READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY BEFORE BROWSING THIS WEBSITE OR USING ANY OF OUR SERVICES. USING THE SERVICES IN ANY WAY INDICATES THAT YOU HAVE BOTH READ AND ACCEPT THESE TERMS. YOU CANNOT USE THIS WEBSITE OR ANY OTHER PART OF THE SERVICES IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS.

We may modify these Terms at any time by posting a revised version on the Site; your continued use of the Site constitutes your binding acceptance of the modifications. If you object to any modification, your sole recourse is to cease use of the Services.

Communications and Newsletters

The Services may include communications such as service announcements and administrative messages from us. You cannot opt out of these while using the Site until you request deletion of your account in writing. You may opt in or out of newsletters and other promotional communications at any time from your account dashboard or by contacting us in writing.

Intellectual Property Rights

We own, or have valid licenses to, all rights, title and interest — including intellectual property rights — in and to the Site, the Services, the software, and other related content (excluding Your Content), and any derivatives, feedback, or suggestions provided by you or others relating to the Site or Services. Content on the Site, including reports, written content, graphics, images, marks, logos, and video, is protected by copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights. You agree not to use our (or our affiliates’ or partners’) trademarks, service marks, or logos without prior written permission, and not to use our intellectual property without our prior written approval, except as expressly granted in these Terms.

Content License (Our Materials to You)

We grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, revocable, non-transferable license to use the Materials for the following Permitted Purpose: (i) if you are an individual using the Materials for home use, homeschooling, or caregiving, for your personal, noncommercial use only; (ii) if you are a teacher or acting on behalf of a school or organization, for use by you and your students. Materials may not be shared except as stated above. Your right to use the Materials is conditioned on your compliance with these Terms, including payment of applicable fees. You may not modify, copy, reproduce, redistribute, create derivative works of, reverse engineer, or otherwise exploit the Site, Materials, or Services except as expressly permitted here. If you make copies of Materials for a Permitted Purpose, you must retain all copyright and proprietary notices. You may not share your account or account information with any other individual unless otherwise permitted by the terms of that account.

MATERIALS MAY NOT BE DISPLAYED ON OTHER WEBSITES, IN PRINTED PUBLICATIONS, OR SHARED WITH ANY INDIVIDUALS, SCHOOLS, OR ORGANIZATIONS NOT LICENSED TO USE THEM.

Service Plans and Payments

You choose a subscription level and term as offered on our Site and agree to pay all applicable fees. Fees are based on the service purchased, regardless of actual usage. We may suspend or terminate your paid account if payment is late or your payment method cannot be processed. By providing a payment method, you authorize us to charge applicable fees, taxes, and other charges at regular intervals depending on your subscription. You are given access only to the portions of the Site and Services corresponding to your chosen level and term. Subscriptions are personal and non-transferable. We may change prices at any time and do not provide price protection or refunds for promotions or price decreases. Non-renewal or cancellation of a paid subscription reverts your account to a free account.

Payments are processed via Stripe. PayPal is occasionally made available as a payment method upon request rather than as a standard checkout option.

All fees are exclusive of applicable taxes, which you are solely responsible for paying. All prices are displayed in US dollars; we do not convert order totals into other currencies. If you pay by card or PayPal, your provider will handle any currency conversion and related fees.

You may cancel your subscription at any time. After cancellation, we discontinue billing for that subscription, but it remains your responsibility to fully cancel the corresponding payment method authorization on your end, if applicable. Unless you cancel prior to the expiration of your current subscription, it will automatically renew on each monthly or yearly anniversary at the then-current full rate for the identical term and level.

We may alter the Materials or Services, or modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of them, at any time, with or without notice, and do not guarantee uptime for any plan, paid or free.

From time to time we may offer a lifetime plan. A lifetime plan grants access only to the services identified at the time of purchase, and only for as long as those services continue to be offered. All products, services, and pricing are subject to change, and rights under these Terms or under any plan may not be assigned to a third party without our prior consent.

Mobile Applications

[REMOVED — The May 2019 Terms included an extensive Mobile Applications section (including Apple iOS App Store and Google Android-specific legal terms). Removed Sept 2026 since no mobile app currently exists. If a mobile app is built in the future, this section (including the required Apple/Google-specific clauses) will need to be restored and updated to match the actual app.]

Privacy Policy

Please review our Privacy Policy at https://www.littlechinesereaders.com/privacy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. Our Privacy Policy includes a dedicated Children’s Privacy section describing our COPPA compliance; we do not maintain this as a separate standalone page.

With respect to any student personally identifiable information (“Student PII”) we collect or process on behalf of an educational institution (a “School”) subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), we will: (i) use Student PII in accordance with our Privacy Policy and only to provide the Services; (ii) not disclose Student PII to third parties except to the School, where legally required, to service providers under confidentiality obligations, or to an acquiring entity in a business transfer; and (iii) maintain reasonable security measures to protect Student PII. We may use and disclose anonymous, de-identified, or aggregate data that does not identify any student. The School is responsible for ensuring its use of the Services complies with FERPA and other applicable law.

[CONFIRM: This FERPA/School section assumes institutional (school-district) customers. The actual current product model built throughout this project is parent-sponsor/student (a parent purchases a sponsoring membership and shares a code with their child), not clear institutional sales. Confirm whether Little Chinese Readers actually has school/institutional customers today — if not, this section may be unnecessary legacy language, though it’s generally low-risk to keep as a contingency.]

User Content

Certain areas of the Services may permit you to submit feedback, information, data, text, images, messages, or other materials (a “User Submission”). You are solely responsible for your User Submissions, which are considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. We do not guarantee you can edit or delete a User Submission once submitted.

By submitting a User Submission, you represent that: you own all necessary rights in it or have obtained all rights needed to grant us the rights described here; you have paid all license/clearance fees related to any use of it; it does not infringe any third party’s rights; you waive all “moral rights” you may have in it; it is not false, inaccurate, or misleading; it does not violate any law; it is not defamatory, hateful, biased, offensive, threatening, harassing, vulgar, pornographic, obscene, or invasive of privacy; you were not compensated by a third party for submitting it; it does not include third-party contact information other than your own; it does not contain viruses or damaging code; it does not contain information you consider confidential or personal; and it is not unsolicited advertising, spam, or a pyramid scheme.

By submitting a User Submission, you grant us an irrevocable, perpetual, transferable, non-exclusive, fully-paid, worldwide, royalty-free license (sublicensable through multiple tiers) to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform, and publicly display the User Submission; and to use it for any purpose we deem appropriate, including operating, maintaining, and improving the Services.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, we will not disclose a child’s name or image in connection with any User Submission without the prior consent of the child’s parent or legal guardian.

[CONFIRM: The scope decision here has been made — broad usage rights are retained, with an explicit name/image non-disclosure carve-out without prior parental consent. Still worth an attorney’s review of the exact wording of “prior consent” (how and when consent is obtained, and whether it needs to be a specific, separate consent from the general Terms acceptance to satisfy COPPA’s verifiable-consent standard, given a child’s image is Personal Information under COPPA). Also confirm whether the commercial/advertising language in the original clause should stay removed entirely, or be reinstated for User Submissions other than children’s identifying content.]

We may, but are not obligated to, pre-screen or monitor User Submissions, and may remove or refuse any at any time. We are not responsible for the accuracy, usefulness, reliability, or intellectual property rights of any User Submissions, and you waive any claims against us relating to your exposure to inaccurate, offensive, or objectionable User Submissions from others. We are not responsible for loss, theft, or damage to User Submissions, and may freely disclose your User Submission to third parties absent any confidentiality obligation on their part.

User Accounts

You need not register to visit parts of the Site, but registration is required to access certain password-restricted areas, services, or Materials. We have sole discretion to approve or deny a proposed account. We do not currently offer registration or login via any third-party service (e.g. Google, Facebook, or similar).

You agree to provide true, accurate, current, and complete account information, and to maintain the confidentiality of your password(s). You must notify us immediately if you believe your account security has been breached.

Security

We make reasonable efforts to protect our servers and your data, but the Internet is not a 100% secure environment and we cannot guarantee the security of your information. We are not responsible for losses or damages that do not arise solely from our intentional misconduct, including losses from unauthorized third-party access to your account resulting from theft or misappropriation of your credentials.

User Activity

The Services may be used only for Permitted Purposes. You are responsible for all activity under your account and must comply with all applicable laws, including data privacy and international transmission laws. Prohibited uses include, without limitation: competing commercial use of the Services or Materials; violating any law; stalking or harassing others; impersonation; interfering with or disrupting the Services; data mining or scraping; attempting unauthorized access; benchmarking or competitive analysis of the Services; posting unlawful, defamatory, obscene, or infringing content; transmitting malicious code; unauthorized advertising or solicitation; spam or chain letters; downloading illegally-obtained files; falsifying attribution or notices; restricting other users’ enjoyment of the Site; probing or testing Site vulnerabilities; forging headers or disguising the origin of transmitted content; imposing unreasonable load on our infrastructure; and collecting or transmitting others’ personal information in violation of applicable privacy law.

Minor Accounts

If you are younger than 18 (a “Minor”), you must have your parent’s or legal guardian’s consent to use the Services and agree to these Terms. Parents/guardians of a Minor are solely responsible for monitoring and supervising the Minor’s use of the Services, for binding the Minor to these Terms, and agree to indemnify us if the Minor breaches these Terms.

Note: this 18-and-under threshold governs contract-formation capacity under general contract law and is separate from the age-13 threshold used in our Privacy Policy under COPPA, which specifically governs parental consent for collecting a child’s personal information. These are two distinct legal concepts, not a conflict — a lawyer should confirm both are worded clearly enough that a reader doesn’t confuse them.

Site Linking

We may link to third-party websites; using those links takes you away from our Services, and we are not responsible for third-party sites, their content, or their privacy practices. You access any linked third-party site entirely at your own risk. We welcome links to our homepage, provided the link does not imply our affiliation with or endorsement of your site, and we do not permit framing or inline linking to our Site.

Intellectual Property Infringement (DMCA)

We respect the intellectual property rights of others and will remove infringing User Submissions, suspend access, and/or terminate accounts of repeat infringers as appropriate. Under 17 U.S.C. § 512, written notice of claimed copyright infringement should be sent to our designated agent:

ATTN: COPYRIGHT

Little Chinese Readers

[CONFIRM: current mailing address — the 2019 Terms list a PO Box (PO Box 4088, Rockville, MD 20849), while a more recent document lists a street address (209 Monroe Street, Rockville, MD 20850). Confirm which is current before publishing either.]

Email: [email protected]

A valid notice must contain: your physical or electronic signature; identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; identification of the allegedly infringing material sufficient to locate it; your contact information; a good-faith statement that the use is not authorized; a statement that the notice is accurate; and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.

DMCA Counter-Notification

If we remove or disable access to material based on a DMCA take-down notice, we will notify you. You may submit a written counter-notification to our agent including: your signature; identification of the removed material and its prior location; a good-faith statement, under penalty of perjury, that the removal was a mistake or misidentification; and your name, address, and phone number, with consent to jurisdiction of the relevant federal court and acceptance of service of process from the notifying party.

Termination of Repeat Infringers

We reserve the right to terminate the account of any user subject to repeated infringement notifications.

Termination

We may immediately terminate or suspend your access to the Services or your account if you fail to pay applicable fees when due, or breach these Terms. Upon termination due to your breach, negligence, or default, we have no obligation to refund fees already paid.

Indemnification

You agree to defend and indemnify us against losses arising from a third-party claim relating to your use of the Site or Services, use of your account or password by any person (unless your account was misappropriated without your fault), content you submit, or your breach of these Terms. We may assume exclusive defense and control of any such matter, and you agree to cooperate with our defense.

Warranty and Disclaimers

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “WITH ALL FAULTS.” WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTIONS OR FAILURES OF ANY THIRD PARTY. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN ADVICE FROM US CREATES ANY WARRANTY.

Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER WE NOR OUR AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, OR PARTNERS WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE SERVICES OR SITE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY, INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, GOODWILL, OR DATA.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY, AND THAT OF OUR AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, AND PARTNERS, WILL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICES.

Some states/jurisdictions do not allow exclusion of implied warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, so the above may not apply to you; in such cases, our liability will be limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

⚠ NEEDS LEGAL JUDGMENT: The liability cap is tied to “total amount paid,” which for a free-plan or trial user would be $0 — some courts view a liability cap that could amount to zero dollars skeptically, treating it as an illusory limitation. Many current best-practice Terms instead specify a fixed minimum floor (e.g., the greater of fees paid or a set dollar amount such as $100). Worth an attorney’s input on whether to add a floor here.

Arbitration

Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Site that cannot be amicably resolved within 60 days of written notice will be finally settled by binding arbitration under the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association. Acceptance of these Terms is a waiver of your right to litigate claims and to a jury trial, except that we may bring an action in court for disputes affecting our intellectual property rights. Arbitration will be conducted in a location of our choosing, before a lawyer-arbitrator, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. The arbitrator has no authority to award damages beyond what these Terms permit; any excess award is void between the parties. Either party may seek interim or preliminary equitable relief from a court pending completion of arbitration.

Class Action and Collective Action Waiver: You and we agree that each may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, or representative proceeding. Unless both you and we agree otherwise, the arbitrator may not consolidate or join more than one person’s or party’s claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of a consolidated, class, collective, or representative proceeding.

Small Claims Court: Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court instead of arbitration, so long as the claim qualifies for that court’s jurisdiction and proceeds only on an individual (non-class, non-representative) basis.

Right to Opt Out: You may opt out of this arbitration provision by sending written notice to [email protected] within 30 days of first accepting these Terms (or, if you already have an account, within 30 days of the effective date of this provision). Your notice must include your name, your account email address, and a clear statement that you wish to opt out of arbitration. If you opt out, the rest of these Terms continue to apply to you, and disputes will be resolved under the remaining provisions of these Terms rather than through arbitration.

⚠ NEEDS LEGAL JUDGMENT: These three additions are standard, commonly-used clause patterns — they resolve the wording gap, but not the separate, harder question of whether mandatory arbitration is enforceable at all for a product directed in part at children, which varies by state and is a live, evolving area. An attorney should confirm enforceability in the states where your users actually are, not just that the clause itself now reads in a conventional format.

Governing Law and Venue

[CONFIRM: The 2019 Terms had no Governing Law/Venue clause at all — a standard provision that was simply missing. Draft placeholder below names Maryland given the business’s registered address; confirm the correct state with the attorney (this is a real legal choice, not just a formality).]

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, except where superseded by the Arbitration section above.

Miscellaneous

We may be required by law to notify you of certain events; such notices are effective upon posting on the Site or delivery to your registered email address. Update your email via your account dashboard — we are not liable for failure to notify you if your information on file is inaccurate.

Our failure to enforce any right or provision does not waive that right or provision. You may not assign these Terms or your rights under them without our prior written approval; we may assign our rights and obligations to a third party at any time without notice to you.

These Terms, together with any documents incorporated by reference, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Site and Services, superseding any prior agreements.

We operate the Services from the United States; if you use the Services from another location, you are responsible for complying with local law. We may limit availability of the Services to any person, geographic area, or jurisdiction at any time.

If any part of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, it will be construed as nearly as possible to reflect its original intent, or severed if that is not possible, without affecting the remaining Terms.

Sections including but not limited to Service Plans, User Content, Intellectual Property Rights, Indemnification, Warranty and Liability, Limitation of Liability, Arbitration, and this provision survive termination or expiration of these Terms.

Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms, contact us at [email protected].