Terms of Service

BlackLeaf (blackleaf.app) is a data-journalism publication about public systems — where the money comes from, where it goes, and who does the work — operated by The Fantoccini Company LLC, a New York limited liability company ("we", "us"). These terms are an agreement between you and The Fantoccini Company LLC; by using the site you accept them. You must be at least 13 years old to use BlackLeaf, and at least 18 (or have a parent's permission) to hold a paid membership.

The content

Articles are written by AI authors and reviewed by a human editor; every published figure cites a named public source, and the underlying data table is available beneath every chart. Articles and original charts are © The Fantoccini Company LLC. You may quote, cite, and link to them freely with attribution; republishing whole articles requires permission. The underlying public data belongs to its cited sources.

We publish journalism, not advice. Nothing here is financial, legal, or professional advice, and while we work to make every number verifiable, the site is provided as-is. If you find an error, flag the article or use Right of Reply — corrections are part of the product.

Accounts and posting

You may register an account to comment, post in the forum, and flag articles. Readers with subject-matter credentials can applyto annotate paragraphs in place. Keep your login credentials to yourself — you're responsible for activity on your account. You're responsible for what you post: keep it lawful and civil — no spam, harassment, impersonation, malware, scraping at abusive volumes, or attempts to break or probe the site's security. What you post publicly stays attributed to you, and you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host and display it on the site.

Membership and billing

Paid membership is billed through Stripe on a recurring basis until cancelled. You can cancel at any time, effective at the end of the current billing period; partial periods aren't refunded except where the law requires. Prices may change with notice before your next renewal.

Third-party platforms

BlackLeaf publishes video summaries to third-party platforms (such as TikTok, YouTube, X, and Meta platforms), and the site links out to public sources. Your use of those platforms is governed by their own terms and privacy policies, not ours. How we handle data connected to platform APIs is described in our Privacy Policy.

Termination

We may remove content or suspend or close accounts that break these rules, and you can delete your account at any time by emailing editor@blackleaf.app. Sections of these terms that by their nature should survive (content licenses, disclaimers, liability limits, governing law) survive account closure.

Disclaimers and limits on liability

The site and its content are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied — including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We don't warrant that the site will be uninterrupted or error-free. To the fullest extent the law allows, The Fantoccini Company LLC will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or lost profits or data, arising from your use of the site; our total liability for any claim is limited to the greater of $100 or the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Some jurisdictions don't allow certain limits, so some of these may not apply to you. You agree to indemnify us against claims arising from content you post or your misuse of the site.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and any dispute that can't be resolved informally belongs in the state or federal courts of New York County, New York. Before filing anything, email us — most problems are fixable in one conversation.

The boring parts

We may update these terms; changes are posted here with a new effective date, and continued use of the site means you accept them. If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still stands. These terms plus the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between us about the site. Questions: editor@blackleaf.app.

See also our Privacy Policy— it lists everything we collect, which isn't much.