Terms and Conditions

These Terms govern your use of the Catan Board Generator (the "Service"), operated as an independent, unofficial, non-commercial fan project. By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. The Service

The Service is a free web application that generates random, balanced layouts for the Catan-style hex board game (3–4 player base layout and 5–6 player expansion layout). It includes adjustable rule toggles, deterministic seed-based shareable URLs, image export, and accompanying explanatory pages.

The Service is provided free of charge. We reserve the right to add, modify, or remove any feature, page, or rule of the Service at any time without notice. We may also suspend, throttle, or terminate access (in whole or in part) without notice in the cases provided for under applicable law or to protect the integrity of the Service.

The Service is intended for general audiences and is not directed at children under 13. By using the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood, and accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

2. Trademarks, fan-content status, and intellectual property

2.1. No affiliation with CATAN GmbH. CATAN® is a registered trademark of CATAN GmbH (and/or its licensees). The Service is an independent, unofficial, fan-made tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, licensed by, approved by, or otherwise connected to CATAN GmbH, Catan Studio, Asmodee, Kosmos, or any of their subsidiaries, parents, or licensees. All references to "Catan" on this Service are descriptive nominative uses identifying the well-known board game whose rules are being demonstrated.

2.2. No reproduction of copyrighted material. The Service does not reproduce, host, distribute, or sublicense any copyrighted artwork, illustrations, fonts, marks, logos, packaging design, rulebook text, or other expressive content created by CATAN GmbH or its licensees. All visual assets on the Service — terrain colours and patterns, hex shapes, number-token styling, robber silhouette, page layout, fonts, icons — are original works created for this Service or used under permissive open-source licences. Where rule mechanics are described, they are paraphrased into original wording with attribution to the official rulebooks; no rulebook text is reproduced verbatim.

2.3. Game mechanics are not copyrightable. The mechanics of a board game (hex-based resource collection, dice rolls, building costs, victory points, etc.) are functional rules and are not, as a matter of law, protected by copyright. The Service implements such mechanics for educational, analytical, and recreational purposes consistent with this principle.

2.4. Nominative fair use of the "Catan" mark. The Service uses the term "Catan" only to the extent necessary to identify the game whose layouts are being generated, in line with the doctrine of nominative fair use under the U.S. Lanham Act, equivalent EU/EEA case law on referential trademark use (Article 14 of the EU Trade Mark Regulation), and the corresponding laws of other jurisdictions. The Service does not use the stylised CATAN logo, official artwork, or any get-up that would suggest sponsorship or endorsement.

2.5. Takedown / right-holder requests. If you are CATAN GmbH or a duly authorised representative and you believe any element of the Service exceeds the scope of fair use or otherwise infringes your rights, please contact us via the contact form. We will review good-faith requests promptly and will modify or remove the contested element where the request is well-founded, without prejudice to our position on fair use. We may also voluntarily withdraw the Service or any part of it at our discretion.

2.6. Original work licensed to you. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Service for personal, non-commercial purposes — including game nights, club events, and tournaments. You may not republish the Service itself, scrape it at high volume, build a competing service from it, train machine-learning models on it, or use it as a component of a commercial product without our prior written permission.

2.7. Other marks. Other marks referenced on the Service (e.g. Google, Mailgun) belong to their respective owners and are used solely for identification.

3. Acceptable use

You agree to use the Service only for lawful purposes. You must not:

• Submit through the contact form any content that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, infringing of privacy or publicity rights, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable.
• Use the Service to advertise, solicit business, or distribute spam.
• Impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service, breach security or authentication measures, or interfere with the Service's normal operation.
• Use automated means (bots, scrapers, crawlers) at high volume in a way that degrades the Service for other users.
• Use the Service in violation of any applicable local, national, or international law or regulation.

4. User-submitted content

By submitting content through the Service (e.g. messages via the contact form), you grant us a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use that content for the purpose of operating the Service and responding to you. You confirm that you have the right to submit the content and that it does not infringe any third-party rights.

5. Disclaimers; "as-is" service

The Service is provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or accuracy. Use of the Service is at your own risk. We do not warrant that:

• The Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free.
• Generated boards will perfectly match the official Catan rulebook in every edge case.
• Any defects will be corrected.

6. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, in no event will the Service, its operators, contributors, or hosting partners be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenue, whether incurred directly or indirectly, arising from your use of, or inability to use, the Service. Where liability cannot be excluded by law, total aggregate liability is limited to the amount you paid for the Service in the past 12 months — which, for a free service, is zero.

7. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Service, its operators, and contributors against any claims, losses, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from (a) your use of the Service in breach of these Terms, (b) content you submit, or (c) your violation of any third-party right.

8. Third-party links and content

The Service may include links to third-party websites or content (for example, Google AdSense advertisements, the official Catan rulebooks hosted on catan.com, or font CDNs). We do not control and are not responsible for those resources. Your use of them is at your own risk and subject to their own terms.

9. Advertising

The Service may display third-party advertisements (e.g. via Google AdSense) to support its operation. We are not responsible for the content or accuracy of any third-party advertisements. See our Privacy Policy for more on advertising cookies and your consent options.

10. Changes to these Terms

We may revise these Terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the latest revision. Continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.

11. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, without prior notice, for any reason — including, without limitation, breach of these Terms, request by a rights-holder, or discontinuation of the Service.

12. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of Romania, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service will be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Romania, except where mandatory consumer-protection laws of your country of residence grant you the right to bring proceedings before your local courts.

13. Severability and entire agreement

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect. These Terms (together with the Privacy Policy) constitute the entire agreement between you and the Service regarding the subject matter and supersede any prior agreements.

14. Contact

Questions, takedown notices, or other legal correspondence should be sent via the contact form. We aim to respond to bona-fide legal correspondence within 14 days.