Terms of Service

1. Agreement

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you and BOS Studio, an independent developer based in the United States ("BOS Studio", "we", "us"). They apply to the First Light app, the service at athan.bosstudio.org, masjid invite pages and masjid display screens (together, "First Light"). Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information and is part of these Terms.

By downloading, opening or using First Light, or creating an account, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, don't use First Light. If you accept these Terms for a masjid or other organization, you confirm you are authorized to bind it, and "you" includes it.

2. Who can use First Light

• Everyone may use the features that work only on your phone (prayer times, alerts, the Quran, Qibla, tasbih, the timetable and the Ramadan tools).
• Accounts (needed to join or follow a masjid) are only for people 13 or older, or older where the law of your country sets a higher minimum age (up to 16) for using online services without a parent's consent. Children below that age must not create an account or give us personal information.
• Minors. If you are under 18, or under the age of adulthood where you live, you may create an account only with the permission of your parent or legal guardian, who must read and agree to these Terms for you. Where a law requires it, that permission is given through your app store's family and age tools (for example Apple's Family Sharing or Google Family Link), and we may rely on the age range and consent status your app store tells us. A parent or guardian who allows a minor to use First Light is responsible for the minor's use and for these Terms.
• Hosting a masjid, buying a hosting plan and being a masjid admin are only for adults (18 or older, or the age of adulthood where you live) who can form a binding contract.
• You may not use First Light if we have previously removed you from it, or if you are barred from receiving services under the laws of the United States or where you live.

The app asks your age before the first account on a phone, and asks again before hosting if it doesn't know. Giving a false age breaks these Terms. We may ask you to confirm your age, and we may suspend or delete an account we reasonably believe breaks these rules. Parents and guardians can contact help@bosstudio.org to have a child's information deleted (see the Privacy Policy's Children and teens section).

3. Prayer times, Qibla and religious matters

Athan times, iqamah times and reminders, the Qibla direction, the Hijri date, Ramadan and fasting times, Quran word highlighting and similar information are calculated from your location, your settings, published astronomical formulas and calculation methods, or are published by a masjid's host. They are provided in good faith for convenience, but:

• they may differ from your local masjid, community or religious authority, and different scholars and methods legitimately disagree;
• they depend on the accuracy of your location, clock, time zone and settings, and on your phone's compass and sensors, which can be wrong or affected by nearby metal or magnets;
• notifications and alarms may be delayed, silenced or not delivered by your phone, its battery and focus settings, or its operating system;
• the Hijri date is calculated and may differ by a day or more from the date set by moon sighting in your community.

First Light is not a religious authority and does not issue religious rulings (fatwas). Nothing in First Light is religious, legal, medical or other professional advice. You are responsible for confirming prayer, fasting and other religious times and directions with your local masjid or a qualified scholar. We are not responsible for the validity of any act of worship, a missed or mistimed prayer or fast, or any decision you make relying on First Light.

Quran text and translations are reproduced from published sources with care, but errors can occur. Please report any error to help@bosstudio.org, and rely on a printed mushaf or qualified teacher for study and recitation.

4. Your account

Give accurate information when you create an account and keep it up to date. You are responsible for keeping your sign-in secure and for everything done through your account. Don't share your account or use anyone else's. Tell us at help@bosstudio.org straight away if you think it has been misused. You can delete your account at any time in the app (Tools → Communities → your account, top right → Delete account).

5. Your license to use the app

Subject to these Terms, we give you a personal, limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to install and use First Light on devices you own or control, for your own non-commercial use (and, for hosts, to run your masjid's community and display screens). You may not, and may not let anyone else: copy, modify, sell, rent, sublicense or distribute the app; reverse engineer, decompile or try to extract its source code, except where the law allows despite this restriction; remove any notices; or use First Light to build a competing product.

6. Hosting a masjid

If you create, host or administer a masjid community, you confirm that you are an adult who is authorized by that masjid or organization to publish on its behalf, and you agree to:

• keep its name, address, location, calculation method, iqamah and Jumu'ah times accurate and up to date;
• publish only announcements that are lawful, truthful and relevant to the community, and follow Acceptable use;
• add someone as an admin only if they have agreed to it, and remove them when they should no longer have access; you are responsible for what your admins do;
• use notifications sparingly and only for the community's real announcements;
• make sure anything shown on a public display screen is suitable to be seen by anyone at the masjid, including children;
• comply with all laws that apply to you, your masjid and what you publish, including privacy, charity, fundraising and consumer protection laws.

Masjid information is published by hosts, not by BOS Studio. We do not verify it, endorse any masjid, organization, event, appeal or announcement, or act on behalf of any masjid. If someone else claims to represent a masjid you host, or a masjid asks us to, we may ask for proof and may transfer, pause, rename or remove the community at our discretion. Community names are unique, so one masjid can't be listed twice under the same name.

7. Your content

"Your content" is anything you publish or submit through First Light, such as masjid details, times, announcements, display settings and admin email addresses. You keep ownership of your content. You give BOS Studio a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, copy, process, adapt (for example to fit a screen), display and distribute your content, only as needed to operate, secure and improve First Light. This license ends when your content is deleted, except for copies already shared with members' devices or held in short-term backups.

You promise that you have all the rights needed to publish your content and to grant this license, and that your content and our use of it as these Terms allow will not infringe anyone's rights or break any law. You are solely responsible for your content. We don't review content before it is published and have no obligation to monitor it, but we may.

8. Acceptable use

You agree not to publish, or use First Light to share, anything that:

• is unlawful, defamatory, fraudulent, misleading or deceptive, including false times, fake masjids or fake appeals for donations;
• is hateful, harassing, threatening or violent, promotes terrorism or violent extremism, or attacks people or groups (including other faiths or communities);
• is sexual or obscene, or exploits or endangers children in any way;
• contains another person's private or personal information without permission;
• infringes any copyright, trademark or other right;
• is spam, chain messages, or advertising unrelated to the masjid;
• contains malware, phishing or links meant to trick people.

You also agree not to: break, overload, probe or get around First Light's security or limits; access it with bots, scrapers or automated means (except a masjid's own public display screen as designed); impersonate a masjid, BOS Studio or another person; create accounts in bulk or by automated means; use First Light to harm minors; or use it in violation of any law.

9. Reporting and moderation

To report content or a community that breaks these Terms, press and hold the announcement in the app, or use Report a problem on the masjid's page; or email help@bosstudio.org with the masjid's name or link and what is wrong. Reports are anonymous: we don't tell the masjid who reported. We review reports and, where we decide it is right, may remove content, pause or remove communities, restrict features, or suspend or delete accounts, with or without notice. We aim to act on reports of objectionable content within 3 business days. You can also leave any masjid you no longer want to follow.

10. Copyright complaints

We respect intellectual property rights. If you believe content on First Light infringes your copyright, send a notice to our copyright agent at help@bosstudio.org with: your physical or electronic signature; the work you say is infringed; the content you say infringes it and where it appears (for example the masjid and announcement); your contact information; a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorized by the owner, its agent or the law; and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner. If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you can send a counter-notice as the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512) allows. We will end the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances.

11. Hosting plans and payments

• Hosting a masjid needs a paid plan: a monthly subscription bought through the Apple App Store or Google Play, priced per community. The price, in your currency and including any taxes, is shown in the app and by your store before you buy.
• Plans renew automatically every month and your store charges your account at each renewal unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends. You can cancel at any time in your App Store or Google Play subscription settings; you keep the plan until the end of the period you paid for. Deleting the app or your account does not cancel a subscription.
• Free trials. New subscribers may be offered a free trial; its length and the price that follows are shown in the app and by your store before you start. When the trial ends, it becomes a paid monthly plan and your store charges you, unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends. Whether you can have a trial (for example, one per account) is decided by your store.
• Payments, billing, refunds and cancellations are handled by Apple or Google under their terms. We cannot issue refunds ourselves; ask Apple or Google. Except where the law requires, payments are non-refundable and there are no refunds for partial periods.
• We may change prices or plans for future periods. Your store will tell you in advance and, where required, ask for your agreement; if you don't agree, the plan ends at the end of the current period.
• If a subscription ends, your communities stay up, and you can keep editing them, for two months. After that, and at once for any community beyond what your plan covers, the newest are paused: they leave search and their public pages and screens are taken down, they can't be edited, and members who joined still see them in the app until a plan covers them again. We do not delete a paused community; it comes back when you subscribe again, and it is deleted only when you delete it or your account. A subscription that is refunded or revoked by the store ends at once, without the two months.
• Redeem codes. A code from First Light gives free hosting time on your account for the period it states. It has no cash value, can't be sold or transferred, may be used once per account, and ends by itself without the two months above.
• Any free hosting, trial or extra slots we grant are at our discretion and may be changed or withdrawn.

12. Third-party content and services

First Light includes or links to content and services from others, which remain theirs and are subject to their own terms:

• The Quran text from the Tanzil Project (tanzil.net, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0), with its structure, through the open-source quran package; translations by the Rowwad Translation Center (published by QuranEnc.com) and Marmaduke Pickthall (1930, public domain), provided for personal, non-commercial reading;
• recitations from everyayah.com, the English read aloud from QuranEnc.com and word timings from quran.com, served from our own server for personal listening;
• athan recordings from Wikimedia Commons, used under their licenses: Madinah by ejaz215 (CC BY 3.0), Aaqib Azeez by Atcovi (CC BY-SA 4.0), Classic by Andrewler (CC BY-SA 4.0), Gentle by Adam-synagda (CC0) and Brief by Aishatu98 (CC0), served unchanged from our own server; the takbir-only option is a shortened excerpt of the same recording;
• typefaces built into the app under the SIL Open Font License, and the BOS Studio wordmark's outlines, traced from Roboto (Apache License 2.0);
• open-source software, listed with its licenses in the app under Settings → Open-source licenses;
• sign-in by Apple and Google, payments by Apple and Google, and bot checks by Cloudflare and Google Firebase.

We don't control third-party content or services and aren't responsible for them, their availability or their accuracy. Your use of them may be subject to their terms and privacy policies.

13. Our rights

First Light, its design, code, artwork, the First Light and BOS Studio names and logos, and everything we create for it belong to BOS Studio or our licensors and are protected by law. These Terms don't give you any rights in them other than the license in section 5. If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them freely without any obligation to you.

14. Changes, suspension and termination

First Light is offered as it is today, and we may change, add or remove features, or suspend or discontinue all or part of it, at any time. Audio we serve (recitations, the English read aloud, word timings and athan voices) has a monthly limit on how much we can send everyone together; if it is used up, new downloads pause until the next month, and anything already on your phone keeps working. Where a change materially reduces a paid hosting plan, we will try to give reasonable notice.

You can stop using First Light and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or end your access, remove your content or delete your account, with or without notice, if you break these Terms, if we are required to by law, if your use creates risk or possible legal exposure for us or others, or if your account has been inactive for a long time. Sections 3, 7 (for content already shared), 13 and 15 to 22 survive the end of these Terms.

We may update these Terms. When we do, the effective date above changes, and we will announce significant changes in the app before they take effect. If you keep using First Light after that, you accept the updated Terms; if you don't agree, stop using First Light and delete your account. Changes to section 18 won't apply to a dispute we already know about.

15. Disclaimers

FIRST LIGHT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, BOS STUDIO DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY AND QUIET ENJOYMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT FIRST LIGHT OR ANY PRAYER TIME, QIBLA DIRECTION, DATE, NOTIFICATION, TEXT, TRANSLATION, RECITATION OR CONTENT PUBLISHED BY A HOST WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, TIMELY, RELIABLE, UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. YOU USE FIRST LIGHT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Some places don't allow some of these exclusions, so some may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits rights you have under consumer protection law that cannot be waived.

16. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS: (A) BOS STUDIO, AND ITS OWNER, CONTRACTORS AND SUPPLIERS, WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DONATIONS, DATA, GOODWILL OR REPUTATION, OR FOR ANY MISSED, LATE OR INVALID PRAYER, FAST, IQAMAH, ANNOUNCEMENT OR EVENT, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO FIRST LIGHT OR THESE TERMS, HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THEIR POSSIBILITY; (B) WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR CONTENT PUBLISHED BY HOSTS OR OTHER USERS, OR FOR THE CONDUCT OF ANY USER, MASJID OR THIRD PARTY; AND (C) OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATED TO FIRST LIGHT OR THESE TERMS IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR HOSTING PLANS IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR US $50.

These limits apply even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose, and are an essential part of the bargain that lets us offer First Light for free. They don't limit liability that the law does not allow to be limited, such as for fraud, gross negligence, willful misconduct, or death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

17. Indemnity

To the extent the law allows, you will defend, indemnify and hold harmless BOS Studio and its owner, contractors and suppliers from any claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your content, your community or masjid, your admins, your use or misuse of First Light, or your breach of these Terms or any law or anyone's rights. We may take over the defense of any such claim at our own cost, and you will cooperate with us. This section does not apply to consumers to the extent a law where they live prohibits it.

18. Disputes and arbitration

This section applies if you live in the United States. It does not apply to consumers in the European Economic Area, the UK, Switzerland or anywhere else where such terms are not allowed.

Talk to us first

Most problems can be solved informally. Before starting arbitration or a court case, you and we each agree to send the other a written description of the dispute and the remedy wanted (to us at help@bosstudio.org; to you at your account email) and to try in good faith to resolve it for at least 60 days.

Binding individual arbitration

If we can't resolve it, you and BOS Studio agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to First Light or these Terms (including whether this section applies or is enforceable) will be resolved by final and binding individual arbitration, not in court, except as listed below. Arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, before one arbitrator, and may be held by video, by phone, on written submissions, or in the county where you live. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section. We will pay any filing, administration and arbitrator fees beyond what you would pay to file in court, unless the arbitrator finds your claim frivolous. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief a court could, but only for you individually.

Exceptions

Either of us may bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies, and either of us may ask a court to stop infringement or misuse of intellectual property.

Class action and jury waiver

YOU AND BOS STUDIO EACH AGREE TO BRING CLAIMS ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, COLLECTIVE OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING, AND YOU AND BOS STUDIO EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL.

If this class action waiver is found unenforceable for a claim, that claim (and only that claim) must be decided by a court, not in arbitration, after any individual arbitration ends.

Opting out

You can opt out of this section by emailing help@bosstudio.org from your account email (or with your name, if you have no account) within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, saying that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms.

Time limit

To the extent the law allows, any claim must be started within one year after it arises, or it is permanently barred.

19. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States and of the U.S. state where BOS Studio is based, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and with the Federal Arbitration Act governing section 18. Subject to section 18, any court case will be brought only in the state or federal courts serving the county where BOS Studio is based, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction. If you are a consumer living outside the United States, you also keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your country, and may bring claims in your local courts where the law gives you that right. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

20. Apple App Store terms

If you got First Light from the Apple App Store, these terms also apply:

1. These Terms are between you and BOS Studio only, not Apple. BOS Studio, not Apple, is solely responsible for First Light and its content.
2. Your license is limited to using First Light on Apple-branded products you own or control, as the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions allow (including use by other accounts in your Family Sharing group where enabled).
3. Apple has no obligation to provide any maintenance or support for First Light. Support is provided by BOS Studio at help@bosstudio.org.
4. If First Light fails to conform to any warranty that applies by law, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price (if any) for First Light to you. To the maximum extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation for First Light, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses from a failure to conform to a warranty are BOS Studio's responsibility, to the extent not disclaimed in these Terms.
5. BOS Studio, not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claims by you or a third party relating to First Light or your possession or use of it, including product liability claims, any claim that First Light fails to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, and claims under consumer protection, privacy or similar laws.
6. If a third party claims that First Light or your possession and use of it infringes their intellectual property rights, BOS Studio, not Apple, is solely responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement and discharge of that claim.
7. You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated by the U.S. Government as a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
8. Questions, complaints or claims about First Light go to BOS Studio at help@bosstudio.org. Our postal address is provided on request and in our App Store listing.
9. You must comply with any third-party terms that apply when you use First Light (for example, your mobile carrier's terms).
10. Apple and Apple's subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, and once you accept them, Apple has the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce them against you as a third-party beneficiary.

21. Google Play terms

If you got First Light from Google Play, these Terms are between you and BOS Studio, not Google, and Google Play's Terms of Service also apply to your download and purchases. Google is not responsible for First Light or its support.

22. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about First Light and replace any earlier agreements.
• Severability. If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent possible, and the rest stays in effect (except as section 18 says about the class action waiver).
• No waiver. If we don't enforce a part of these Terms, that is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
• Assignment. You may not transfer these Terms or your account without our written consent. We may transfer them, for example to a company we form or to a new owner of First Light.
• Events beyond our control. We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as outages of the internet, app stores, hosting or other providers, natural disasters or changes in law.
• Electronic notices. You agree that we may give you notices in the app, on this website or by email, and that electronic notices and agreements satisfy any legal requirement to be in writing.
• Export and sanctions. You will comply with all U.S. and other export control and sanctions laws that apply to your use of First Light.
• No third-party rights. Except as section 20 says about Apple, these Terms give no rights to anyone else.
• Language and headings. The English version of these Terms controls. Headings and the summary at the top are for convenience only.

Contact: BOS Studio, United States · help@bosstudio.org