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iSpeak Translation API — Terms of Service

Last Updated: May 31, 2026 · Effective: June 15, 2026

1. Agreement

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the iSpeak Translation API ("Service"), a developer service operated by Silver, Inc., a Minnesota corporation ("Silver Inc," "we," "us," or "our"). By creating an account, requesting an API key, or making any request to the Service, you ("you," "Customer") agree to these Terms.

If you are accessing the Service on behalf of a company, organization, or other entity, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity to these Terms, and "Customer" includes that entity.

2. The Service

iSpeak is a Hmong-first translation API that translates between Hmong and 100+ other languages using Google Cloud Translation infrastructure, plus a Hmong text-to-speech (TTS) endpoint built on Silver Inc's own neural voice model. The Service is available at silverfamilytree.com/api/v1/ and described publicly at silverancestors.com/pajhlub-audio.html.

We may update, improve, add, or remove features at any time. We will provide reasonable advance notice for breaking changes that affect paid Customers.

3. Account & API Keys

3.1 Registration

To use the Service you must:

3.2 API key security

API keys grant access to your account and are tied to your daily quota. You are responsible for:

We will rotate your key upon request at no charge.

4. Tiers, Quotas & Billing

4.1 Tiers

The Service offers four tiers:

Quotas reset at 00:00 UTC each day. Hard caps cause requests to return HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests) for the remainder of the day. Soft caps may be enforced on a fair-use basis.

4.2 Billing

Paid subscriptions (Pro, Enterprise) are billed monthly in advance through Stripe, Inc. Your subscription auto-renews unless canceled before the next billing date. We do not store your full payment card details — they are tokenized and held by Stripe.

4.3 One-time products

The Interpreter Paj Hlub Setup ($29.99 standard, $199.99 nonprofit) is a one-time service for a branded deployment of the iSpeak demo. Delivery is within 7 business days of payment confirmation.

4.4 Tax

Prices shown are exclusive of any applicable sales, use, value-added, or similar taxes, which are your responsibility unless Silver Inc is legally required to collect them.

5. Refund Policy

6. Acceptable Use

You agree NOT to use the Service to:

7. Suspension & Termination

Silver Inc reserves the right to suspend or terminate any account, without refund, if we reasonably determine that you have violated these Terms. We will provide notice where reasonably possible, but for serious abuse (key sharing, automated scraping, unlawful content) we may suspend immediately.

You may terminate your account at any time by emailing admin@silverfamilytree.com. Termination does not relieve you of fees already incurred.

8. Intellectual Property

8.1 Service

Silver Inc owns all rights, title, and interest in the Service, including the Hmong TTS model, API design, documentation, and all Silver Inc trademarks. No license is granted except as expressly stated in these Terms.

8.2 Customer content

You retain ownership of the text you submit for translation. By submitting text, you grant Silver Inc a worldwide, royalty-free license to process, cache, and aggregate it solely as needed to operate the Service.

8.3 Translation output

Translated text and synthesized audio returned by the Service are yours to use for any lawful purpose, including commercial use, subject to §6 (no use in competing translation products).

9. Third-Party Services

The Service relies on third-party infrastructure including Google Cloud Translation (translation processing), Stripe (payments), Hostinger (email/SMTP), and Cloudflare (DDoS protection and CDN). Your use of the Service is also subject to those providers' terms; we do not control their policies and are not responsible for their actions.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. Silver Inc disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and accuracy of translation. Machine translation is imperfect; we do not warrant that translations will be free of errors, particularly for medical, legal, or other high-stakes contexts.

11. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, SILVER INC'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE FEES YOU PAID TO SILVER INC IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) $100.

IN NO EVENT WILL SILVER INC BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold Silver Inc harmless from any claims, damages, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of (a) your use of the Service, (b) your violation of these Terms, or (c) your violation of any third-party rights.

13. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Minnesota, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Ramsey County, Minnesota, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

14. Changes

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be announced via email to your account address at least 30 days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms: admin@silverfamilytree.com

Template notice: This document is a starting template provided to launch the Service. Before broad public launch, Silver, Inc. should have these Terms reviewed by qualified legal counsel licensed in Minnesota and any other jurisdiction in which Customers are located. This template does not constitute legal advice.