Terms of Service

1. The service

BookBite.fm ("the Site") offers bilingual Chinese–English audio conversations about books: we produce derivative two-host discussions based on published works, together with written outlines.

The Site is still being built. The list below separates what works today from what is planned but not yet live. Until a planned feature actually launches, nothing here is a representation that we already offer it.

• Available now: browsing and listening to the Chinese and English tracks for individual books;
• Available now: switching between the Chinese and English interface;
• Available now: browsing official booklists and playing a whole booklist end to end;
• Available now: signing in with a Google account. After your first sign-in we ask you to complete a nickname, gender and date of birth;
• Available now: saving individual books;
• Available now: saving official booklists.
• The list above is everything the Site actually offers as at the effective date of these Terms. When we add features we will update these Terms and the effective date; features not listed are covered in clause 5.
• The Site does not provide full-book narration and is not a substitute for the original work. Each book is represented by a derivative conversation and summary that is far shorter than the book itself.

2. Accounts

You can browse and listen without signing in. Signing in is not a precondition for using the Site, and we do not put content behind a sign-in wall.

Accounts are created through Google sign-in. After your first sign-in we ask you to complete a nickname, gender and date of birth; anyone under 16 cannot complete that step and gets no account features. You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping your Google credentials secure.

You may ask us to close your account at any time. After closure, saved-item data associated with the account is handled as described in the Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these Terms.

3. Intellectual property

The Site’s interface design, audio programmes, written outlines and on-site copy are owned by the Site operator or its licensors and are protected by copyright.

Book cover images, titles, authors, publication details and other bibliographic metadata come from third-party sources and publishers, and remain the property of their respective rights holders.

Listening to content on the Site gives you no copyright, licence or other right in any original work. If you want to read the original, please buy or borrow it through lawful channels.

Without our prior written permission you may not copy, download, republish, redistribute or publicly communicate the Site’s audio or text, or use it for any commercial purpose.

4. Nature and accuracy of the content

Our audio and outlines are produced with the assistance of large language models and presented as a conversation. They are commentary, interpretation and debate about the original work, reflecting the programme’s perspective rather than necessarily the author’s position.

We work to keep quality high, but we do not warrant academic accuracy, completeness or currency. The content is for general information only and is not investment, medical, legal, psychological or any other professional advice.

For facts, figures and quotations, rely on the original work and authoritative sources. If you spot an error, please tell us at bookbite.fm@gmail.com.

5. Prohibited conduct

When using the Site you must not:

• scrape, crawl or mirror the Site’s content in bulk by automated means;
• download, transcribe or republish our audio or text for profit;
• circumvent, break or attempt to break any technical protection measure or access control;
• interfere with the normal operation of the Site, including through load attacks, injection attacks or API abuse;
• impersonate another person or access another account without authorisation;
• use the Site’s content to train third-party models or build a competing service.

6. Features not yet offered

To avoid any misunderstanding, the following are not currently provided. They appear in our plans but were not live as at the effective date of these Terms:

• Affiliate purchase links: we plan to join affiliate programmes such as Amazon Associates in future. If we do, we will make a clear affiliate disclosure on the relevant pages and update these Terms at that time.
• Melbourne in-person reading events and ticketing: planned; if launched, separate event rules and booking terms will be published.
• User-created booklists and comments: planned. If launched, we will publish separate user-generated content rules, including content standards, moderation, and a non-dismissible label on any AI-generated ambient content.
• Share images and on-site search: planned; neither entry point exists on the Site today.
• Until those features actually launch, references to them in these Terms are informational only and are not a representation that we already offer them.

7. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Site is provided "as is" and "as available". We make no express or implied warranty that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, virus-free or fit for your particular purpose.

Nothing in this clause affects your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law cannot be excluded, restricted or modified; to the extent anything in these Terms conflicts with them, the Australian Consumer Law prevails.

8. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential loss, loss of profit or loss of data.

Where we are entitled by law to limit our liability, our liability is limited to resupplying the relevant service or paying the cost of having it resupplied.

Again, this clause does not exclude, restrict or modify any right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law.

9. Termination

You may stop using the Site at any time. To close your account, email bookbite.fm@gmail.com — there is no self-service account closure on the Site yet.

We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these Terms, or if we reasonably believe that continuing to provide the service would create a legal or security risk. Where circumstances allow, we will tell you first.

Clauses 3 (Intellectual property), 7 (Disclaimers), 8 (Limitation of liability) and 11 (Governing law) survive termination.

10. Changes to these Terms

We may revise these Terms from time to time. The revised version will be published on this page and the effective date at the top will be updated.

Where a revision materially affects your rights, we will take reasonable steps to tell you separately. Continuing to use the Site after a revision takes effect means you accept it.

11. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of Victoria.

If a dispute arises out of these Terms or the service, the parties will first try to resolve it through good-faith negotiation. Failing that, the dispute will be submitted to the courts of Victoria, to whose non-exclusive jurisdiction the parties submit.

If the operating entity is registered in a different jurisdiction, that jurisdiction governs instead, and this clause will be updated accordingly.

12. Contact us

For any question about these Terms, contact:

WINKME PTY LTD (operating BookBite.fm) | 47 Radnor St, Camberwell VIC 3124, Australia | bookbite.fm@gmail.com