Terms of Service

1. Provider and terminology

Pixelfish Publisher is provided by Pixelfish Marketing Solutions (Pty) Ltd (“Pixelfish”, “we”, “us” or “our”), based at 21 Coronation Road, Pioneer Park, Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, 2940, South Africa.

“Publisher” means the Pixelfish Publisher website, account area, conversion tools, hosted readers, bookshelves, analytics and related services. “Customer content” means PDFs, images, audio, video, text, branding, links and other material supplied through an account.

2. Acceptance and authority

By creating an account, starting a trial, purchasing or renewing a licence, or using Publisher, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you act for an organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to accept these Terms for it.

You must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into this agreement. Nothing in these Terms removes rights that cannot lawfully be excluded under South African consumer or electronic-transactions law.

3. Accounts and access

You must provide accurate account information and keep it current. Each user must use their own authorised login. You are responsible for protecting passwords, controlling team access and promptly telling us about suspected unauthorised use.

Google sign-in may be used only where the Google email address matches an existing Publisher user. Google sign-in does not create an account automatically. You remain responsible for activity performed through your account unless caused by our failure to apply reasonable security safeguards.

4. Service, plans and fair use

Features, storage, user seats and other entitlements are determined by the plan shown at purchase. Paid plans allow unlimited publications within the applicable storage allowance and reasonable technical use. Individual publications may contain up to the page limit displayed for the plan.

Storage includes original PDFs, rendered pages, thumbnails, uploaded media and other publication assets. When storage is full, existing publications may remain available, but uploads and rebuilds may be paused until capacity is freed or increased.

We may apply reasonable measures to protect the service from automated abuse, malicious traffic or usage that materially harms other customers. We will not use fair-use controls to impose hidden per-reader fees.

5. Free trial

The standard free trial lasts 14 days, includes one publication of up to 50 pages and does not require payment details. Unless stated otherwise, one trial is available per customer or organisation.

A trial does not convert into a paid licence automatically. At the end of the trial, publishing and editing access may be paused unless a paid licence is activated. Trial content may not be retained indefinitely, so customers should keep their original source files.

6. Prices, payment and annual renewal

Publisher licences are billed annually in South African rand at the price displayed at checkout. Any applicable tax will be identified where required. Payments are processed by Payfast; we do not store complete card details.

At checkout, you may choose an annual once-off payment or automatic annual card renewal where available. A once-off licence does not charge automatically. If automatic renewal is selected, Payfast may charge the approved annual amount on each renewal date until the subscription is cancelled.

You may request cancellation of an automatic renewal by contacting us before the next renewal date. Cancellation stops future renewal charges but does not ordinarily end access already paid for. Refunds and payment reversals are handled under our Refund & Cancellation Policy and applicable law.

We may change prices for a future licence period by giving reasonable notice. A price change does not alter a licence period already paid for. Failed or overdue renewals may enter a grace period before publishing or editing access is paused.

7. Customer content and ownership

You retain ownership of customer content. You grant Pixelfish a limited, non-exclusive licence to store, process, reproduce, render and deliver that content only as needed to provide, secure and support Publisher.

You confirm that you own the content or have all permissions needed to upload and publish it, including permission for personal information, photographs, trademarks, music, video and third-party material. Pixelfish does not acquire ownership of your publication by hosting it.

You should retain independent copies of original PDFs and media. Publisher is a publishing service, not the sole archival backup for source material.

8. Acceptable use

You may not use Publisher to upload, distribute or facilitate content or activity that:

• is unlawful, fraudulent, defamatory, threatening or deliberately deceptive;
• infringes copyright, privacy, confidentiality, trademark or other rights;
• contains malware, harmful code, credential theft or unauthorised tracking;
• exploits children or contains prohibited sexual or violent material;
• attempts to bypass security, access another customer’s data, overload the service or reverse engineer protected components; or
• uses misleading domains, impersonation or spam to deceive readers.

We may restrict or remove content when reasonably necessary to address a security risk, legal obligation, rights complaint or material breach. Where appropriate and lawful, we will try to notify the account owner.

9. Privacy, analytics and security

Personal information is handled according to our Privacy Policy and applicable data-protection law, including the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013. Customers remain responsible for the legality of personal information they place inside publications or collect through lead forms.

Publisher may process account, payment-status, security, diagnostic and reader-engagement information to operate and improve the service. Reader analytics are designed to avoid storing raw reader IP addresses. No internet service can promise absolute security, but we apply reasonable technical and organisational safeguards.

10. Availability, changes and support

We aim to keep Publisher available and reliable, but uninterrupted or error-free operation cannot be guaranteed. Maintenance, hosting providers, internet failures, third-party services, security events and circumstances beyond reasonable control may affect availability.

We may improve, replace or discontinue features where reasonably necessary. We will avoid materially reducing a paid plan during its current licence period without a valid operational, legal or security reason. Support is provided through the channels and priority level associated with the selected plan.

11. Suspension, cancellation and termination

You may stop using Publisher at any time and may cancel future automatic renewals by contacting us. Expiry or cancellation does not automatically create a refund for time already used.

We may suspend or terminate access for material breach, unlawful use, security abuse, non-payment or a legal requirement. Where the issue can reasonably be corrected, we will ordinarily provide notice and an opportunity to remedy it.

After a licence ends, public availability and account access may be limited or paused. Contact us promptly if you need assistance with content removal or account closure. Obligations relating to payment, ownership, liability and disputes survive where their nature requires it.

12. Warranties and liability

Publisher is supplied with reasonable care and skill. Except for warranties or remedies that cannot lawfully be excluded, the service is provided without guarantees that it will meet every specialised requirement or remain compatible with every third-party system.

To the extent permitted by law, neither party is liable to the other for indirect, incidental or consequential loss, loss of profit, lost opportunities or loss caused by content supplied by the customer. Our aggregate liability arising from Publisher will not exceed the licence fees paid by the affected customer during the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

These limitations do not apply where liability cannot legally be limited, or to loss caused by fraud, gross negligence or wilful misconduct.

13. Changes, notices and governing law

We may update these Terms to reflect legal, security or product changes. The current version and effective date will remain published here. Material changes affecting paid customers will be communicated reasonably before they take effect where practicable.

South African law governs these Terms. The parties should first attempt to resolve a dispute in good faith through written communication. Nothing prevents either party from approaching a court or regulator with lawful jurisdiction or using a remedy available under consumer law.

If one provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply. A failure to enforce a right immediately is not a waiver of that right.

14. Contact Pixelfish