Terms of Service

1. Operator

50 Million Messages is operated by Baldomero Castilla. Contact: founder@50millionmessages.com. Business address: 2 14 Zenith Avenue, Chermside.

2. The service

The core paid service is the publication of one numbered public message of up to 140 characters for US$1.00. A qualifying purchase may also create one voting entitlement and, where the participant and purchase are eligible, participation in the prize competition under the Competition Rules.

3. No guarantee of winning

Purchasing the publication service does not guarantee a prize, a particular ranking, any number of votes or any return of money beyond rights and remedies provided by applicable law and the Refund Policy. The Promoter does not manually choose the winning message.

4. Competition integrity

If the competition is enabled, the winner-selection mechanism, voting, eligibility, exclusions, audits, tie-break, verification and prize-payment requirements are governed by the Competition Rules. The public Integrity & Audit page describes the intended verification process, but the Competition Rules control if there is any inconsistency.

5. Public content and permanent numbering

Your message, public nickname, selected country and any optional city or region supplied for public display may be visible to other users and used for archive browsing and filtering. Do not put a street address, private contact details or other sensitive information in public fields. Message numbers are intended to remain permanently reserved and are not reused. "Permanent" does not mean unlawful, abusive, infringing, unsafe or policy-violating content must remain publicly visible.

6. Your licence to us

You retain rights you have in your submitted text. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, display, format, index, moderate and distribute the message and associated public metadata as necessary to operate, secure, promote and archive the service, subject to applicable law.

7. Your promises

You must be at least 18, have authority to make the purchase, provide accurate private contact information and not submit content you do not have the right to publish. You must not use stolen payment methods, automation, exploits, harassment, threats, doxxing, spam, false identity information or unlawful material.

8. Local law and availability

The service and competition are void where prohibited or restricted by applicable law. By participating, you represent that your participation is lawful in your jurisdiction of residence and from the jurisdiction from which you participate. We may restrict a country or jurisdiction where necessary for legal, regulatory, sanctions, payment-provider or security reasons. Nothing in this clause transfers to a participant an obligation that applicable law places on the Promoter.

9. Payments

Payments are processed by third-party payment providers. The secure payment step displays the amount that will be authorized before the customer confirms payment. We do not intentionally store full card numbers or card security codes. A message is published only after server-side confirmation of the exact qualifying successful payment.

10. Refunds, reversals and disputes

The Refund Policy forms part of these Terms. A refunded, reversed, fraudulent or successfully disputed transaction may cease to qualify for prize purposes and may cause its voting entitlement or related competition votes to be revoked or adjusted under the Competition Rules.

11. Winner verification

No prize becomes payable merely because a public leaderboard shows a message in first place. A potential winner must complete the verification required by the Competition Rules, which may include identity, age, residence, sanctions, payment, eligibility and conflict-of-interest verification and signed declarations.

12. Taxes

A winner is responsible for personal taxes, duties, declarations and other obligations arising from receipt of the prize, except to the extent applicable law requires the Promoter to withhold, report or pay an amount.

13. Availability and changes

We may maintain, secure, update or temporarily suspend parts of the service where reasonably necessary. Material competition changes will be handled in accordance with the Competition Rules and applicable mandatory law. We will not retrospectively substitute a different discretionary winner-selection method for the published ranking mechanism.

14. Liability and mandatory rights

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not responsible for indirect or consequential losses caused by events outside our reasonable control. Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies rights, remedies, guarantees or liabilities that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified.

15. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia, while preserving mandatory rights that apply in another jurisdiction.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms: founder@50millionmessages.com.