Preamble & Binding Agreement
Free, Non-Commercial & Open-Source Community Platform Pledge:
MangakaFolio is an independent, free, and open-source platform (FOSS) and personal cataloging utility. MangakaFolio does NOT paywall manga chapters, restrict reading progression behind subscription fees, sell digital merchandise, or deploy intrusive commercial third-party advertising networks. Access to manga reading, directory search, and personal tracking remains completely free for everyone.
These Terms of Service ("Terms", "Agreement") constitute a legally enforceable contract governing access to and usage of the MangakaFolio platform, website, application programming interfaces, discussion infrastructure, reading synchronization engines, and associated digital services (collectively, "MangakaFolio", "MangaFolio", "the Service", "we", "our", or "us").
By creating an account, browsing our catalog, publishing commentary, creating Curated Stacks, configuring reading trackers, uploading showcase assets, or supporting via Ko-fi, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to be legally bound by these Terms and our integrated Privacy Policy.
1. Acceptance of Terms & User Eligibility
Access to MangakaFolio is conditioned upon strict compliance with these Terms. By utilizing the Service, you represent and warrant that:
- Age of Majority: You are at least 13 years of age (or 16 years of age for residents of the European Economic Area and United Kingdom). If you are between 13 and the legal age of majority in your jurisdiction, you represent that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms on your behalf.
- Legal Capacity: You possess the full legal right, capacity, and power to enter into this Agreement and are not barred from receiving services under applicable export control or sanctions laws.
- Jurisdictional Compliance: Your use of the Service does not violate any local, state, national, or international statute, ordinance, or administrative regulation applicable to you.
2. Description of Services & Platform Architecture
MangakaFolio is a specialized digital suite engineered for comic, manga, manhwa, and manhua curation. Our platform provides the following live operational capabilities:
3. Account Registration, Authentication & Security
Certain features require creating a registered user account. When registering:
- Credential Confidentiality: You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials. Passwords are cryptographically salted and hashed using BCrypt. Password resets use short-lived, 32-byte cryptographically secure SHA-256 tokens. You agree to notify MangakaFolio immediately of any unauthorized access or security compromise.
- Accurate Registration: You agree not to select a username that impersonates another individual, violates third-party trademark rights, or is intentionally deceptive, vulgar, or offensive.
- Single Account Responsibility: You are fully liable for all actions, comments, Curated Stacks, uploads, and interactions executed under your authenticated account session.
- Automated Abuse Prohibition: Creation of accounts via automated scripts, bots, or unauthorized scraping agents is strictly prohibited and results in immediate automated termination.
4. User Content, Curated Stacks & Community Guidelines
MangakaFolio fosters a welcoming, vibrant environment for readers worldwide. All user-generated content—including comments, replies, custom tag suggestions, Curated Stacks, profile bios, and portfolio descriptions—must adhere to these mandatory standards:
Prohibited Conduct Across Discussions & Curated Stacks:
- Harassment, targeted abuse, cyberbullying, hate speech, defamation, or threats of violence against any individual or group.
- Transmitting sexually explicit material, non-consensual imagery, extreme graphic gore, or child sexual abuse or exploitative material (CSAM).
- Posting commercial spam, affiliate referral schemes, phishing links, malware distribution vectors, or unauthorized solicitations.
- Attempting to manipulate community upvotes, rating algorithms, tag scores, Stack rankings, or discovery leaderboards through automated scripts or vote rings.
- Deploying denial-of-service vectors, attempting SSRF attacks, or reverse-engineering server APIs and upstream partner endpoints.
Users may propose custom genre, trope, and theme tags and participate in tag scoring. You agree not to submit intentionally deceptive, vandalized, or untagged spoiler tags. MangakaFolio employs automated threshold algorithms and user reporting systems to quarantine contested metadata. Experience points (EXP), badges, and curator titles are non-monetary virtual achievements possessing no cash, proprietary, or transferable value.
5. Showcase Uploads & Asset Storage Policy
MangakaFolio provides a secure asset storage pipeline (powered by AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, or secure host persistent volumes) allowing users to upload favorite panels and profile avatars:
Technical Constraints & Fair Use Scope:
- Standard Account File Size Limit: 10.0 Megabytes (10MB) per asset upload.
- Supporter Account File Size Limit: 25.0 Megabytes (25MB) high-resolution upload allowance for verified Backer Tier 2+ ("Isekai CEO" and "Nah, I'd Fund").
- Permitted MIME Formats:
image/jpeg,image/png,image/webp,image/gif. - Fair Use Showcase Only: Uploads are strictly restricted to single panel frames, excerpted scenes, and avatar crops for non-commercial commentary and personal portfolio curation under fair use doctrine.
- Prohibited Storage: Uploading entire copyrighted chapters, full tankōbon volumes, or non-comic files is strictly forbidden and results in immediate deletion.
MangakaFolio reserves the right to immediately inspect, quarantine, or remove any asset that violates file integrity rules or fair use storage limits.
6. Intellectual Property, Trademarks & Safe Harbor
MangakaFolio acknowledges and respects the intellectual property rights of original creators, authors, illustrators, publishers (including Shueisha, Kodansha, Kadokawa, Square Enix, Hakusensha, Naver, Kakao), and licensed distribution entities worldwide.
Non-Affiliation & Publisher Trademark Notice: MangakaFolio is an independent open-source software project and is NOT affiliated with, authorized, sponsored, or endorsed by Shueisha, Kodansha, Kadokawa, Square Enix, Hakusensha, Naver, Kakao, MyAnimeList, MangaDex, or any comic publisher or distributor worldwide. All manga titles, series artwork, character likenesses, and brand trademarks belong strictly to their respective registered proprietors.
Third-Party Catalog Metadata: Series titles, cover artwork, synopsis copy, author biographies, character entries, and community scores are dynamically retrieved via public API interfaces (MangaDex, Jikan / MyAnimeList, AniList). All rights to these intellectual assets remain strictly with their registered proprietors.
Transient Image Stream Proxy & Safe Harbor (17 U.S.C. § 512(a)): MangakaFolio operates strictly as an intermediary metadata index and client-side reader conduit. MangakaFolio does not host, upload, or persistently store digital manga chapter archives on its servers or origin VPS host file systems. Reading feeds and images are dynamically proxied from publicly accessible third-party sources on an ephemeral, real-time basis upon user request. The image proxy maintains zero persistent disk byte caching, enforces DNS SSRF filtering, and applies sliding-window rate limiting (180 requests/min per IP). End-users assume sole responsibility for compliance with local copyright laws.
MangakaFolio Proprietary Rights: The MangakaFolio software code, user interface designs, logos, styling frameworks, database structures, and platform branding are the exclusive intellectual property of MangakaFolio.
License to User Contributions: By posting comments, Curated Stacks, tag suggestions, or portfolio showcases on MangakaFolio, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to host, display, format, and distribute that content across our services in connection with standard platform operations.
7. DMCA & Copyright Infringement Takedown Policy
In accordance with Title 17, United States Code, Section 512 (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and international copyright directives, MangakaFolio maintains an expedited notice-and-takedown protocol:
Filing a Formal DMCA Notice of Infringement:
If you are a copyright owner or designated legal representative and believe that any content hosted or indexed on MangakaFolio infringes upon your copyright, submit a formal written notice containing:
- Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or a representative list of works.
- Specific identification of the allegedly infringing material, including exact URLs on MangakaFolio.
- Contact information of the complaining party (Full legal name, physical address, telephone number, and official email address).
- A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- A statement made under penalty of perjury that the information in the notification is accurate and that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner.
- A physical or electronic signature of the authorized copyright holder or legal representative.
Repeat Infringer Policy: MangakaFolio will terminate user accounts determined to be repeat infringers of intellectual property rights under appropriate circumstances.
8. Voluntary Community Memberships, Crowdfunding & Perks
MangakaFolio offers voluntary community supporter memberships and crowdfunding tips powered by Ko-fi to help offset server hosting, AWS S3 panel storage, image proxy bandwidth, and developmental maintenance costs.
All manga reading, directory exploration, multi-device tracking, bookmarking, and Curated Stacks creation are 100% free forever. No chapter content, translation, or core platform utility will ever be placed behind a paywall or paid membership tier.
Supporter tiers (including Truck-kun Sponsor at $2/mo, Isekai CEO at $5/mo, and Nah, I'd Fund at $10/mo) grant purely aesthetic badges, profile glowing auras, backer wall acknowledgments, custom title tags, and utility enhancements such as elevated 25MB high-resolution panel upload allowances. Supporter perks possess no cash, equity, proprietary, or transferable value.
All financial transactions, payments, and subscriptions are handled externally by Ko-fi and its underlying payment gateways (PayPal and Stripe). MangakaFolio never receives, stores, or processes payment card details or banking credentials. You retain complete self-service control inside your Ko-fi account dashboard to pause, cancel, or modify your subscription tier at any time without penalty.
Because payments are voluntary crowdfunding contributions directly allocated toward server operational expenditures, donations are generally non-refundable, except as required by law or processed under Ko-fi's refund guidelines. In the event of a chargeback, dispute, or approved refund, associated supporter badges and elevated upload quotas are automatically rescinded.
MangakaFolio is an independent open-source software project and community platform, not a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable institution. Contributions made to MangakaFolio are not tax-deductible as charitable gifts.
9. Disclaimers of Warranties & Limitation of Liability
A. Warranty Disclaimer ("AS IS" Basis)
MANGAKAFOLIO, ITS OPERATORS, AFFILIATES, AND SUPPLIERS PROVIDE THE SERVICES, METADATA FEEDS, DISCUSSION BOARDS, CURATED STACKS, AND READING TOOLS ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
B. Limitation of Direct & Consequential Damages
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL MANGAKAFOLIO, ITS DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, USE, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES ARISING FROM: (I) YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF THE SERVICE; (II) ANY CONDUCT OR CONTENT OF ANY THIRD PARTY; (III) ANY CONTENT OBTAINED FROM UPSTREAM APIS OR PUBLIC WEB DIRECTORIES; OR (IV) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS, ALTERATION, OR TRANSMISSION OF YOUR STORED BOOKMARKS OR LOGS.
IN NO EVENT SHALL OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS ($100.00 USD) OR THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO MANGAKAFOLIO IN THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS.
C. Complete Personal Liability Exclusion for Developers & Contributors
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL THE INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPER(S), AUTHORS, MAINTAINERS, OR OPEN-SOURCE CONTRIBUTORS OF MANGAKAFOLIO BE PERSONALLY LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, NOR FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT, TRADEMARK CLAIMS, DATA LOSS, OR SYSTEM INTERRUPTIONS ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THIS SOFTWARE. YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF MANGAKAFOLIO IS AT YOUR SOLE INDIVIDUAL RISK.
10. User Indemnification & Hold Harmless
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless MangakaFolio, its individual creators, developers, contributors, operators, and licensors from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, awards, losses, costs, expenses, and reasonable legal and accounting fees arising out of or in any way connected with: (a) your user-uploaded panel images, avatar files, comments, Curated Stacks, or tag suggestions; (b) your violation of any third-party copyright, trademark, privacy, or publicity rights; (c) your violation of this Agreement; or (d) your use of third-party indexers, scrapers, or proxy reader features.
11. Governing Law, Dispute Resolution & Class Waiver
Governing Law: These Terms and any dispute arising from your use of MangakaFolio shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the applicable jurisdiction, without regard to its conflict of law principles.
Class Action Waiver: YOU AND MANGAKAFOLIO AGREE THAT ANY PROCEEDINGS TO RESOLVE DISPUTES WILL BE CONDUCTED ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT AS A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION.
12. Service Modifications, Termination & Data Rights
We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of MangakaFolio at any time with or without prior notice.
User-Initiated Account Termination & Data Export: You may terminate your account at any time via the self-service "Delete Account" control located in your Profile Settings, or by emailing [email protected]. You may also download a complete JSON archive of your personal records prior to account termination via our self-service data export endpoint.
Complete Account Erasure vs. Discussion Soft-Deletion: Upon verified account deletion, all personal profile records, bookmarks, reading history, push subscriptions, and uploaded image files (avatars and panels) are permanently deleted from database tables and cloud object storage. In public discussion channels, comment bodies are soft-deleted (is_deleted = true) with personal attribution scrubbed and replaced with placeholders to prevent breaking reply hierarchies for other community members.
13. Legal Contact & Notices
For legal inquiries, formal notices, or compliance verifications under these Terms: