Terms of Service

Last updated: October 17, 2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and the Shimeji Buddy team (“we”, “us”, “our”) covering the website shimejibuddy.com (“the website”) and the Shimeji Buddy browser extension (“the extension”), together “the Service”. By using the Service you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

1. Who can use the Service

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under 18, you may use it only with the permission of a parent or guardian who agrees to these Terms on your behalf. By using the Service you confirm that you meet these requirements.

2. What the Service is

The website publishes information about animated “Shimeji” characters and the extension that displays them on web pages. The extension is a free add-on for Chromium-based browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Brave. The extension is currently in development; until it is published on the Chrome Web Store, the website describes planned features, and we may change or remove any feature before or after launch.

3. Licence to use the extension

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to install and use the extension on devices you own or control, for personal, non-commercial purposes. You may not:

copy, modify, translate, reverse engineer, decompile or create derivative works of the extension or its artwork, except where the law allows it regardless of this restriction;
redistribute, sell, rent or sublicense the extension, its sprite sheets or other assets, or bundle them with other software;
remove or alter any copyright, trademark or attribution notice;
use the extension or the website to infringe anyone’s rights or to break any law.

All rights not expressly granted remain with us and our licensors.

4. Intellectual property

The text, design, code, logo and original artwork on the website and in the extension belong to us or our contributing artists and are protected by copyright and other laws. You may share links to our pages and quote short excerpts with attribution, but you may not republish our content or artwork without written permission.

Many characters are fan-made tributes to characters from games, anime, films and music. The names, likenesses and trademarks of those characters belong to their respective owners. The Service is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by those owners. Rights holders who believe their work is used improperly can follow the procedure on our DMCA page.

5. Your submissions

If you send us character requests, feedback, suggestions or artwork (“Submissions”), you confirm that you own them or have the right to share them, and that they do not contain confidential information or personal information about others. You grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual licence to use, reproduce, adapt and publish Submissions in connection with the Service, for example to build a requested character or quote feedback on the website. We may credit you by the name you give us. You keep ownership of your Submissions. If you prefer we do not use something you sent, tell us at the time and we will respect that where reasonably possible.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

access the Service by automated means such as bots or scrapers, except for search engines following our robots.txt;
attempt to gain unauthorised access to the website, its administration area or its servers;
interfere with the Service, overload it, or introduce malware;
use the contact form to send spam, abuse, threats or unlawful content;
misrepresent your identity or your affiliation with any person or organisation.

7. Advertising and third-party services

The website may display advertisements served by Google AdSense and other networks. We do not control the content of ads and an advertisement is not an endorsement by us. The website links to third-party sites and services, including the Chrome Web Store and social networks, which have their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for their content or practices.

8. Availability, changes and termination

We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of the Service at any time, with or without notice, including removing characters or features. We may also terminate or restrict your access if you breach these Terms. You can stop using the Service at any time by uninstalling the extension and leaving the website. Sections 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 and 12 continue to apply after termination.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or compatible with every website, browser version or device, or that any character will behave in a particular way on a particular page.

10. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, profits or goodwill, arising out of or related to the Service, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service will not exceed fifty US dollars (US$50). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you; in that case our liability is limited to the smallest amount permitted by law.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold us and our contributors harmless from any claims, losses and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising from your breach of these Terms, your Submissions, or your misuse of the Service.

12. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [YOUR STATE], United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be brought in the state or federal courts located in [YOUR COUNTY/STATE], and you consent to their jurisdiction. Before starting any formal proceeding, please contact us so we can try to resolve the issue first. Nothing in this section removes consumer protections you are entitled to under the laws of your place of residence.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The date at the top shows the latest version, and material changes will be announced on the website. Continuing to use the Service after a change means you accept the updated Terms.

14. General

If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them to a successor of the Service. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and the DMCA Policy, are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to contact@shimejibuddy.com or through the contact page.