Terms of Service

Acceptance

By using Cards4 — whether as a signed-in account holder or as an anonymous guest playing in your browser — you agree to the rules on this page. If you do not agree, the right move is to close the tab and not use the service. There is no separate “accept” checkbox because there is nothing meaningful to negotiate; the terms here are the same for everyone.

Your account

You are responsible for the email address tied to your account. The magic-link sign-in flow trusts whoever can read the inbox at that address, so if your email is compromised, your Cards4 account is compromised. Keep your email secure. If you suspect someone else has signed in as you, delete the account from the settings page and create a new one with a different address.

You may only operate one account. Multiple-account abuse — especially in any future multiplayer game — is grounds for terminating every account involved.

Acceptable use

Cards4 is a card games site. Use it for that. Specifically, you agree not to:

• Reverse-engineer the wire protocol to send malformed channel messages, attempt to forge game state on the server, or otherwise cheat in any current or future multiplayer mode.
• Scrape, crawl, or systematically download Cards4 pages with the intention of republishing the content.
• Attempt to break, overload, or degrade the service for other users — including denial-of-service attempts, brute-forcing the magic-link endpoint, or hammering API routes.
• Use Cards4 to harass other users in any chat or multiplayer feature that may be added later.
• Use Cards4 in any way that violates the laws of the jurisdiction you are using it from.

Reasonable inspection of the client-side bundle, the public source code, and the documented HTTP/Channel surface is fine — Cards4 is open about how it works.

Intellectual property

Where the Cards4 source code is published, it is licensed under the licence attached to the source repository at the time you fetch it; refer to the repository for the canonical licence text. The “Cards4” name and the site design are not part of that licence and remain with the project author. The standard 52-card deck, the names of card games, and the rules of those games are public domain and not claimed by anyone.

Termination

You can terminate your account at any time from the settings page. The deletion is immediate and unrecoverable. Cards4 may terminate or suspend an account that violates these terms, without prior notice, at its discretion. Cards4 may also discontinue the service entirely — the project author runs this on personal infrastructure and is not obligated to keep it running forever.

Disclaimers

Cards4 is provided “as is” and “as available”. No warranty — express or implied — is made about fitness for any particular purpose, uninterrupted availability, freedom from defects, or the accuracy of any game outcome. The flip-card demo is a demo. The multiplayer roadmap is a roadmap, not a commitment. If a game state is lost because the server restarted, that is a feature of the current architecture, not a refundable event.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the operator of Cards4 is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of your use of the service. Direct liability — if any — is limited to the amount you paid Cards4 in the twelve months preceding the claim, which for every user is zero, because Cards4 does not charge for use.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Disputes will be resolved in the competent German courts unless the parties agree otherwise in writing.

Changes

These terms may change as the project grows. When they do, the “Last updated” date at the top of the page will reflect the change. Continuing to use Cards4 after a change means you accept the new terms; the way to reject them is to delete your account and stop using the site.