TERMS OF USE

Gutter ("we", "us") runs thegutter.in, a site where people make comics together one panel at a time with the help of AI. By using Gutter you agree to these terms.

1. Who can use Gutter

Gutter is family-friendly and open to all ages. If you are under 18, a parent or guardian must approve your account before you can create anything; until then you can read, like and vote. One person, one account; keep your password safe.

2. What you post

When you add a panel you write a short prompt and Gutter's AI turns it into a caption and an image. Your prompt, the generated caption and image together are your "contribution".

You keep whatever rights you have in your contribution. Because comics on Gutter are made together, you grant Gutter and every other contributor to the same story a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to display, reproduce, adapt and continue your contribution as part of that story and its branches, and to share it (for example as images or exports of the story). This licence lasts as long as the story exists, even if you delete your account, because other people's panels build on yours.

You can delete your own panel while nobody has continued it yet. Once others have built on it, it stays part of the story.

3. Art, AI models and ownership

No one owns Gutter's art styles. The styles you pick (risograph, ink wash, woodblock print, watercolor and so on) are general, centuries-old art techniques, not anyone's proprietary style. We don't offer styles that copy a named living artist.

Open models and fonts. Panel images are generated by FLUX.1 [schnell], an openly released image model published under the Apache 2.0 licence, which allows commercial use of its outputs. Captions, dialogue and story continuity are written with Anthropic's Claude. Lettering in speech bubbles and the site use open-source fonts (SIL Open Font Licence). We don't train any AI model on your contributions.

Not exclusive. AI-generated images are not unique: similar images can be produced for other people, and in many countries purely AI-generated images may not be protected by copyright at all. So neither you nor Gutter gets exclusive ownership of a generated image. Gutter claims no ownership of your contribution beyond the licence in section 2.

Using your comics outside Gutter. You may share, print or otherwise use your own panels anywhere, including commercially, as long as you follow the Content Rules and the law. A story also contains other people's panels, so when you use a whole story, credit its contributors by their @handles. You are responsible for not using Gutter to copy trademarks, characters or artwork that belong to someone else.

4. Content rules

You must follow the Content Rules. We use automated and human moderation and may hide or remove content, limit features, or close accounts that break them.

5. Private and unlisted stories

Private stories are visible only to their members and unlisted stories only to people with the link, but they are still subject to the Content Rules and moderation. A private story can only be made public if no other members have contributed panels to it.

6. Fair use of AI generation

Generating panels costs us real money, so free accounts have daily limits. Don't try to get around limits (for example with multiple accounts or automation).

7. AI output

Images and captions are produced by AI models and may be inaccurate, unexpected or resemble existing works. Don't use Gutter to imitate named living artists or to depict real people.

8. Paid features

Any paid features will have their price and terms shown before you buy.

9. Disclaimers and liability

Gutter is provided "as is". To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, and our total liability is limited to the amount you paid us in the previous 12 months.

10. Complaints and grievances

To report content or raise a grievance, use the "Report this panel" link or email [email protected]. We acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and aim to resolve them within 15 days, as required by India's Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

11. Deleting your account

You can delete your account any time from My Profile. We then erase your email, password, social logins and display name, and log you out everywhere. Your @handle is kept reserved so nobody can impersonate you, and your panels stay in their stories, marked as from a deactivated account. To have your handle hidden from those panels as well, email [email protected].

12. Changes

We may update these terms; we'll post the new version here and change the date above.