Terms of Service

Fishing Codex is published and operated by FISHINGCODEX LIMITED, a New Zealand limited company. Apple and Google are not parties to these Terms (see § 21).

You can use the app offline as an anonymous user without creating an account. You must be at least 13 years old. Purchases on the web marketplace or via in-app purchase require 18, or a parent/guardian to complete the purchase. Creator registration is strictly 18+.

You agree not to:

• Use the Services for any illegal purpose, including violating fishing regulations or trespassing.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile or scrape the Services beyond what is permitted by law.
• Use automated means to extract creator data, listings or photos.
• Extract, copy or republish another user's spot data, photos or coordinates outside the Services.
• Circumvent the heatmap fuzzing, lockdown radius, or no-coordinates-displayed rules.
• Attempt to manipulate entitlements, bypass payment flows, or exploit refunds.

Prohibited content includes adult or explicit material, AI-generated or stock photos presented as real captures, misrepresented location data, and spots in legally protected fishing areas.

You own the spots, notes, photos, catch records, likes and comments you create. By using the Services you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, host, back up, and display your content as needed to operate the Services. The licence ends when you delete the content or your account (subject to tax/legal retention obligations).

• One-off paid spots: creator-set price, purchased once for lifetime access. Entitlement syncs to your app on completion of the Stripe payment.
• Per-creator subscriptions: monthly, annual, or lifetime access billed via Stripe; cancel any time from your account dashboard.
• Free spots: creators may list spots at $0; no platform fee applies.
• App Pro (native IAP): separate subscription processed by Apple or Google; managed via your Apple ID or Google Play subscription settings.

FCL charges creators a 15% application fee on each web marketplace transaction. Buyers pay the price shown at checkout; no additional surcharges are added by FCL.

Marketplace listings reflect a creator's personal historical experience at a spot. They are not a guarantee of fish presence, weather, tide, access, legality, or any particular catch outcome. You are buying the creator's knowledge, not a catch result.

For the first 90 days after public app release, each imported spot triggers a 500 metre lockdown radius blocking other users from listing inside it. When a lockdown expires, new listings are permitted only if the photo was captured through the in-app camera after the lockdown ended.

Nothing in this section limits any statutory consumer right under the NZ Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Australian Consumer Law — see § 14.

Web marketplace subscriptions auto-renew via Stripe. Cancel at fishingcodex.com/account → Subscriptions. Cancellation stops the next renewal; you keep access until the end of the current paid period. Access is revoked on confirmed refund, successful dispute, renewal failure after grace period, or account suspension.

The full terms for paid creators are in the Creator Agreement. In short: 18+; connect a Stripe Standard account; you are the merchant of record for your own sales; FCL charges a 15% application fee; Stripe handles KYC, tax reporting, and direct payouts to you.

Nothing in these Terms excludes any consumer guarantees you have under the NZ Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Australian Consumer Law to the extent those rights cannot lawfully be excluded. To raise a statutory claim, email hello@fishingcodex.com. We will respond within 10 business days.

To the maximum extent permitted by law and subject to § 12, the Services are provided “as is” without warranty. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages. Our total aggregate liability is capped at the greater of NZD $100 or the total amount you have paid us in the 12 months before the claim. Nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

You can terminate at any time by deleting the app or your account. We may suspend accounts that materially breach these Terms, commit fraud, or pose legal or safety risk. For minor first-time breaches we will normally issue a warning first.

We do not display marine reserves, protected areas, or regulatory boundaries on any map surface. You are responsible for knowing the rules where you fish. NZ: Fisheries New Zealand (MPI) and DOC. AU: your state fisheries authority.

These Terms are governed by the laws of New Zealand. For Australian users, the Australian Consumer Law applies in addition. Email hello@fishingcodex.com first — we aim to respond within 5 business days. NZ users may bring a claim in the Disputes Tribunal (Auckland non-exclusive jurisdiction).

By making a purchase on the web marketplace you acknowledge that your payment is processed by Stripe, Inc. on behalf of the creator whose connected account is being charged. Your use of Stripe's payment services on our platform is subject to Stripe's Consumer Terms of Service. FCL is the platform operator and is not the merchant of record for web marketplace transactions.

These Terms are between you and FISHINGCODEX LIMITED only. Apple Inc. and Google LLC are not parties. Their roles are limited to app distribution and processing in-app purchases (App Pro only). Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you. You confirm you are not in an embargoed country and not on any US Government prohibited parties list.

We may update these Terms at any time. For material changes we will surface an in-app notice and, where we hold your email, send advance notification. Updated Terms take effect 14 days after notification.

Contact: hello@fishingcodex.com · FISHINGCODEX LIMITED (NZBN 9429053662774).