Terms of Service

Effective 19 August 2026

These terms govern your use of Novel Holmes ("the service"), an AI-assisted novel-discovery tool operated by the Novel Holmes team. By using the service you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

The service

Novel Holmes helps readers find novels, translations, official editions, fan works, blogs, and discussions across the public web. It responds to your questions using large language models, catalog data, and public sources. Results are informational only; you are responsible for confirming that any source is appropriate before purchasing, downloading, or otherwise engaging with it.

Anonymous accounts

Novel Holmes does not require sign-up. Sessions are anonymous and identified by an opaque cookie. You may generate a recovery code inside the app to attach additional devices to the same anonymous account. If you lose your recovery code and all sessions expire, your history cannot be recovered — this is by design.

Acceptable use

• Do not submit content that is unlawful, harassing, defamatory, or infringing.
• Do not attempt to bypass rate limits, quotas, or authentication.
• Do not use the service for scraping, competitor benchmarking without authorization, or to train other AI systems.
• Do not use the service to distribute pirated works or to solicit their distribution. Novel Holmes points to legal sources wherever possible.
• Do not attempt to extract, reverse-engineer, or degrade the service.

We may throttle, suspend, or remove access for violations without notice.

Third-party links

The service surfaces links to third-party websites (publishers, retailers, catalogs, encyclopedias, communities). We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their contents, availability, terms, or privacy practices.

Intellectual property

All service software, brand assets, and curated content are owned by Novel Holmes or its licensors. Descriptions, cover images, and titles referenced by the service belong to their respective rights holders and appear here for identification and referral purposes only.

DMCA and takedown

If you believe content surfaced by the service infringes your rights, follow the notice-and-takedown process in the DMCA policy.

Disclaimers

The service is provided "as is," without warranties of any kind. AI outputs may be incomplete, out of date, or wrong. Do not rely on the service for legal, medical, financial, or safety advice. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Novel Holmes disclaims all implied warranties.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Novel Holmes and its operators shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages, or for lost data, lost profits, or loss of goodwill arising out of or related to the service.

Changes

We may update these terms as the product evolves. Material changes will be reflected in the effective date above. Continued use after an update constitutes acceptance.

Contact

Legal notices and other correspondence: legal@novelholmes.com. Privacy questions: privacy page.