Terms of Service

Cardinal (cardinaldebate.org, the “Service”) provides tools for competitive debate preparation: cutting cards from source material, searching evidence, building blockfiles and cases, and related features. Some features are free with usage limits; others require a paid plan.

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under 18, you may use Cardinal only with the permission of a parent or legal guardian, and they agree to these terms on your behalf and are responsible for your use of the Service.

Provide accurate information, keep your password private, and do not share an account to get around usage limits. You are responsible for activity on your account. If you think your account has been compromised, tell us right away.

You own the content you create on Cardinal: your cards, cases, blockfiles, and other work. You give us the limited license we need to store, process, back up, and display that content to you and to anyone you share it with, so the Service can function. If you post a public review, you give us permission to display it on the site with the name you provide.

The articles and studies you cut cards from belong to their publishers and authors. Cardinal helps you format and organize excerpts for competitive debate, a practice your league regulates; you are responsible for using source material lawfully, citing it accurately, and following your league’s evidence rules (for example, the NSDA’s).

If you believe content on Cardinal infringes your copyright, email aanvithreddy@gmail.com with the material’s location, proof of your ownership, and your contact information, and we will review and remove infringing material promptly.

Parts of the Service use AI to read sources and generate results. AI can make mistakes: a tag may overstate a claim, a highlight may miss context. Check every card against its source before you read it in a round. Cardinal does not guarantee that outputs are accurate, complete, or compliant with any league’s rules, and does not guarantee competitive results.

Do not:

• break the law, or use the Service to harm others;
• probe, scrape, overload, or disrupt the Service, or bypass its rate limits;
• resell or redistribute the Service or systematically extract its data;
• upload malicious code or attempt to access other users’ accounts or data;
• misuse referral or promotional programs (for example, fake accounts).

We may remove content or suspend accounts that violate these rules.

Paid subscriptions are billed through Stripe and renew automatically until you cancel. You can cancel anytime; cancellation stops future charges and your plan stays active until the end of the period you paid for. Except where the law requires otherwise, fees are non-refundable. If we change prices, we will give notice before the change affects an active subscription. Prices are in USD.

Referral rewards, free-use bonuses, and promotional codes are features we can modify or end, and we may revoke rewards obtained through abuse (such as self-referrals or fake accounts).

You can stop using Cardinal, or request account deletion, at any time. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms or create risk for the Service or its users; when reasonable, we will warn you first. Sections that by their nature should survive (such as sections 4, 5, 11, 12, and 13) survive termination.

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. Cardinal is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NSDA, Tabroom, or any debate league or tournament.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Cardinal will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost data, lost opportunities, or competitive outcomes. Our total liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of one hundred US dollars (100 USD) or the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

If a third party brings a claim against Cardinal arising from your violation of these terms or your unlawful use of the Service, you agree to cover the resulting costs and damages to the extent permitted by law.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, excluding its conflict of laws rules. Before filing any claim, contact us and give us 30 days to work it out with you; most issues are resolved with an email. Either party may bring qualifying claims in small claims court.

We may update these terms as the Service evolves. If a change is significant, we will update the effective date and give notice by email or in the app. Using the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms.

Questions about these terms: email aanvithreddy@gmail.com.

See also the Privacy Policy.