Legal

Terms of Service

Effective [EFFECTIVE DATE]. These terms govern payauthors.com, a service of In Lux Research + Analytics ("In Lux", "we").

1. What the service is

payauthors.com lets you search an author name against three public data sources — the Library Genesis ("LibGen") non-fiction and fiction catalogs as of June 5, 2021, the published file list of the Books3 dataset, and the U.S. Copyright Office's public registration data — and buy a report (the "Report") listing the records that match. The free check returns counts only. The Report is a compilation of metadata: titles, author fields, years, languages, publishers, ISBNs, file names and public registration data. It contains no book contents, and we hold none.

2. Who may use it

You must be at least 18 and able to enter a binding contract. You may search any name, but you agree to use the Report only for lawful purposes, including establishing or documenting your own or your client's interests in works, and not to harass or profile any individual.

3. Price, payment and delivery

The price is shown before checkout (currently US $95 per name searched, or US $125 for the Claims edition with registration status details; taxes where applicable). Payment is processed by Stripe; we do not see or store card numbers. On successful payment you are taken to a private report page from which the Report can be downloaded as CSV, PDF and JSON. The report link is valid for 30 days after purchase. The result set is frozen at the time of purchase: later searches of the same name may differ if our datasets are updated.

4. Refunds

Because the Report is delivered immediately and in full, it is not returnable. We will refund a purchase where the Report was not delivered, is technically unusable, or is materially not as described, if you tell us within 14 days at support@payauthors.com. We do not refund purchases because the results were not what you expected, because a name is common, or because the datasets do not contain a work you believe should be there. Our refund policy has the details.

5. Method and limits — please read

• A LibGen record means the LibGen catalog listed that title, author, year, publisher, language, ISBN and edition on June 5, 2021. It is a statement about the catalog on that date. It is not a statement that any file was downloaded, copied, or used by any person or company, and it is not a finding of infringement.
• A Books3 record means a file name in the published list of the Books3 dataset carried the name you searched. Author and title are read out of the file name; where a file name could not be split with confidence both halves are given as the author. About 19,000 Books3 file names carry no recognizable author and cannot be found by name. We do not hold the Books3 texts.
• "ISBN in Books3" means the edition's ISBN is among the 129,635 ISBN-13s extracted from inside the Books3 files by a third party (Peter Schoppert, psmedia/Books3Info). Its absence proves nothing: roughly a third of Books3 files carry no ISBN.
• Registration matches against the U.S. Copyright Office data (non-dramatic literary works, TX, January 1, 1978, to July 8, 2021) were made by ISBN where both sides had one, and otherwise by a normalized title (exact, main title only, or the same title words ignoring stop words) plus an author or claimant surname. The title methods are heuristic: a match means a registration exists for that title and name, not that the catalog copy is that exact edition. Many registrations carry no ISBN, most foreign and pre-1978 works are absent, and titles registered under another form of the name will not match. Only TX (text) registrations from the Office's tabular data are covered; sound-recording (SR) registrations such as audiobooks, other classes, renewals and recorded documents (assignments and transfers) are not. A missing registration mark is not evidence that a work is unregistered. Verify any line you rely on against the linked Copyright Office record.
• Name matching is by whole-word prefix within one author name. The Report lists every record whose author field matches the name as typed; it does not decide which of them are yours, and it does not cover other spellings or pen names, which are separate searches.
• Data currency. The LibGen data is a snapshot from June 2021 and the registration data runs to July 2021. Works added to either afterwards are not included. Each Report states the dataset version and the SHA-256 checksums of the source files it was built from.

6. Not legal advice

In Lux is a research and analytics firm, not a law firm. The Report and this site are information, not legal advice, and using them does not create an attorney–client relationship. Whether any listing, file or registration matters for a claim, settlement, registration or licensing decision is a question for your own lawyer.

7. Intellectual property

The Report is prepared for you and you may use, copy and share it for your own purposes, including in legal proceedings. The site, its design and its software are ours. The underlying public data belongs to its respective sources; we make no claim to it. If you are the author or rights holder of a work listed in a Report, nothing here affects your rights in that work.

8. Warranties and liability

We take care to build the datasets faithfully and each Report documents its sources, but the data comes from third parties and contains errors, gaps and inconsistencies that we cannot correct. The service and the Report are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including accuracy, completeness, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. To the fullest extent the law allows, In Lux's total liability for any claim arising from the service or a Report is limited to the amount you paid for that Report, and we are not liable for indirect, consequential or special losses. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

9. Privacy

Our privacy policy explains what we collect (the names you search, your order and e-mail, and basic server logs) and how long we keep it.

10. Changes, termination, law

We may change these terms or the service; the version shown at checkout applies to that purchase. We may refuse or cancel orders we reasonably believe are abusive or fraudulent, refunding any payment taken. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of [STATE], U.S.A., and any dispute will be brought in the courts of [COUNTY, STATE], unless applicable consumer law gives you the right to sue where you live.

11. Contact

In Lux Research + Analytics · support@payauthors.com · [POSTAL ADDRESS]