Terms of Use & Acceptable Use
BioCraftEd Lab · educational molecular-biology simulation
⚠️ DRAFT — pending legal review. Liability limits and
disclaimers below are drafted to be defensible but must be reviewed by a
solicitor — consumer-law and Children's Code constraints limit what can be
excluded. Items marked [REVIEW: …] still need a founder
decision or solicitor sign-off. Effective date:
[REVIEW: launch date]. Provider:
[REVIEW: registered company name] (UK Ltd).
1. About these terms
These Terms govern your use of BioCraftEd Lab ("the Service"), a
browser-based educational simulation operated by
[REVIEW: registered company name], a company registered in
England & Wales (company no. [REVIEW]) ("we", "us"). By
creating an account or using the Service you agree to these Terms and our
Privacy Policy. If you are under 18, you may use the Service
only through a school that has enrolled you, and your school's and your
parent/guardian's permission applies.
2. ⚠️ Educational simulation — what BioCraftEd is and is NOT
Read this. It is the most important part of these Terms.
- BioCraftEd is an educational simulation. The qPCR machine, primer design,
organisms, sequences, and "lab" are modelled/simulated. The science is
designed to be accurate for teaching, but the Service is not a real
wet-lab protocol, not a real product, and not a substitute for professional,
laboratory, medical, clinical, or scientific advice.
- No real-world authorisation. Nothing in the Service authorises, licenses,
instructs, or qualifies you to perform real genetic engineering, real PCR,
DIY-bio, or any real laboratory or biological work. Simulated results do not
transfer to the real world.
- Do not rely on the Service for any real experiment, diagnosis, treatment,
safety decision, or regulatory/biosafety judgement. Real laboratory and
genetic-engineering work is subject to strict laws, licensing, ethics approval,
and biosafety rules in every jurisdiction — seek qualified professional and
regulatory guidance for anything real.
- No medical advice. The Service does not provide medical or health advice.
[REVIEW: solicitor to confirm this disclaimer is sufficient given
BioCraftEd deals with genetic-engineering subject matter; consider a one-click
acknowledgement at first login that records acceptance of this clause.]
3. Accounts and roles
- You must give accurate information and keep your password secure. You are
responsible for activity under your account.
- Roles: student (under 18, via a school), enthusiast (18+
self-learner), teacher, developer, admin. We may verify,
suspend, or remove accounts that breach these Terms or that we reasonably believe
are misused.
- Enthusiast tier is 18+. By choosing it you confirm you are at least 18.
- Email verification may be required to activate an account.
4. Acceptable Use — what you must not do
You agree not to:
- use the Service for any unlawful purpose, or to break any law that applies to you
(including biosafety, export-control, or genetic-engineering laws);
- present simulated outputs as real scientific, clinical, or laboratory results;
- attempt to gain unauthorised access (e.g. to other users' data, admin functions,
answer keys, or the Schools CRM), probe, scrape, or attack the Service, or bypass
the role/permission system or rate limits;
- upload unlawful, harmful, harassing, hateful, or sexual content, or content that
endangers a child, into any free-text field (display name, lab notebook,
submissions, messages);
- impersonate others, share another person's personal data without authority, or
misuse a school join code;
- reverse-engineer, resell, or commercially exploit the Service except as we
expressly permit.
Teachers/schools additionally agree to use the Service consistent with their
own safeguarding and data-protection duties and the school data-processing agreement.
5. Content and intellectual property
- The Service, its content, missions, catalogues, and code are owned by us or our
licensors. [REVIEW: confirm licensing of bundled scientific
reference data / sequence catalogues and any open-source components.]
- Your content (lab-notebook entries, submissions, saved runs) remains yours;
you grant us (and, for school pupils, the school) a licence to store and process it
to provide the Service. Teachers/schools may view pupils' submitted work for grading.
6. Availability, changes, and beta nature
The Service is provided on an "as available" basis and may change, be updated, or be
interrupted. Features may be experimental. We may modify or discontinue features.
[REVIEW: confirm any uptime commitments to schools — likely none at
launch; state "no SLA" unless a paid school contract says otherwise.]
7. Disclaimers and limitation of liability
- To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is"
and we exclude implied warranties (e.g. fitness for a particular purpose), except
those that cannot lawfully be excluded (including under the UK Consumer Rights
Act 2015 for consumers).
- We are not liable for any loss arising from reliance on the simulation as if
it were real laboratory/medical/scientific fact, or from any real-world experiment,
genetic-engineering, or DIY-bio activity you undertake. Such activity is entirely
at your own risk and may be unlawful.
- We do not exclude or limit liability for death or personal injury caused
by our negligence, fraud, or anything that cannot be limited by law.
- Subject to the above, our total liability is limited to [REVIEW:
cap — e.g. the greater of fees paid in the prior 12 months or £100; solicitor to set
a defensible cap, noting it cannot defeat consumer rights or apply unreasonably to
children].
[REVIEW: a court will not enforce an unreasonable exclusion against a
consumer or child (Consumer Rights Act 2015 fairness test). Solicitor MUST review this
clause; over-broad exclusions risk being struck out entirely.]
8. Suspension and termination
We may suspend or end your access for breach of these Terms or to protect users or the
Service. You may close your account at any time (school pupils: via your school). On
termination we handle your data per the Privacy Policy and Retention Schedule.
9. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales and subject to the
exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales, except that consumers
keep the protection of mandatory local law (including EU consumers).
[REVIEW: confirm governing-law/jurisdiction choice and whether a
separate schools/B2B contract supersedes these consumer terms.]
10. Contact
[REVIEW: registered company name (UK Ltd), company no., registered
office, contact email].