Terms.
Reading and subscribing.

About these terms

Comlumen is a Stacklumen LLC product. Stacklumen LLC is a Kentucky limited liability company based in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. These terms apply when you read Comlumen, make a Comlumen account or subscribe. The privacy notice says what we keep about you and why. Write to us at support@stacklumen.com.

Reading and the free stories

The front page, sections, the briefing, live coverage, Play and the opening of every story are free for everyone. Beyond that, each reader has a number of free stories each calendar month, counted by a meter: once in your browser if you are signed out, or on your account if you are signed in. A story counts once a month, however often you open it. The count starts again on the first of each month. We may change how many free stories there are; the subscribe page always shows the current number.

Accounts and age

New accounts are open to people who live in the United States. You must be 16 or older to make an account or subscribe. Keep your sign-in details to yourself; an account is for one person. You can delete your account at any time from your profile. Deleting it ends any subscription at once.

Subscriptions

• What you get. A subscription reads every Comlumen story, without the meter, on every device you sign in on with that account.
• What it costs. $10 a month or $100 a year, in US dollars, plus tax where it applies. The exact price, with any tax, is shown at checkout before you pay.
• Renewal. A subscription renews automatically at the end of each month or year, and the same price is charged to the same card, until you cancel. If the price is going to change, we tell you by email at least 30 days before the renewal it applies to, so you can cancel first.
• Payment. Stripe takes payments for us. If a renewal payment fails, Stripe tries again for a short time; if it still fails, the subscription may end.

Cancelling

Cancel at any time from your account page: Subscription, then Cancel subscription. You can also write to us. Cancelling stops the next renewal. You keep reading until the end of the month or year you have paid for, and nothing more is charged.

Your 14-day right to cancel (EU and UK)

If you live in the EU or the UK, the law usually gives you 14 days to cancel a contract made online and get your money back. Because a subscription opens every story straight away, we only start it if you ask us to, and that request ends the 14-day right once the subscription starts. You make the request at checkout by ticking this box:

I want my subscription to start now. I understand that, if I’m in the EU or UK, I lose my 14-day right to cancel once it starts.

Without the tick, checkout does not open. If you subscribed without making that request, or you think something went wrong, you can still cancel within 14 days of subscribing by telling us clearly, for example with the form below, and we will refund every payment for it within 14 days, to the card you paid with.

To Stacklumen LLC, Lexington, Kentucky, United States, support@stacklumen.com: I give notice that I withdraw from my contract for a Comlumen subscription. Subscribed on: [date]. Name: [your name]. Email on the account: [your email]. Date: [today’s date].

Refunds

Apart from the 14-day right above, we do not refund part of a month or year you have already started, because cancelling keeps your reading until its end. We do refund when we charge you by mistake, when we end your subscription without you doing anything wrong, and whenever the law where you live says we must. Nothing in these terms takes away your rights under that law.

Where you can subscribe

Subscriptions are available in the United States for now. Anyone, anywhere, can read the free stories. We cannot sell subscriptions in countries or regions under US sanctions. If a subscription is paid from somewhere we cannot sell to, judged by the billing address, we end it and refund the payment in full.

Using Comlumen fairly

Comlumen’s stories, pictures and puzzles are ours or used with permission. You may read them, share links to them and quote short parts with credit. Please do not:

• copy, republish or sell our stories, or use them to train or feed automated systems, without our written permission;
• scrape the site, or get round the meter, the paywall or a sign-in;
• share an account or a subscription with other people;
• use Comlumen to break the law, or to harm the site or the people who use it.

If you do, we may suspend or close your account. If we close a paid account for that reason, we tell you why.

What we publish

We work hard to get things right and correct mistakes in the open, on the story and on the corrections page. Our journalism is information, not financial, legal, medical or other professional advice. How we report explains how stories are made.

Our responsibility to you

We are responsible for loss you suffer that is a foreseeable result of us breaking these terms or failing to take reasonable care. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable, or for business losses. Nothing in these terms limits our responsibility where the law does not allow it to be limited, such as for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Changes

Comlumen is still being built, and pages and features change. We may change these terms; the date at the top changes when we do. If a change matters to subscribers, we tell you by email at least 30 days before it applies, and you can cancel before then. The terms you agreed to at checkout apply until that renewal.

The law that applies

These terms are governed by the law of Kentucky, United States. This doesn’t take away rights your local consumer law gives you: if you live in another country, you keep the protection of its mandatory consumer law, and you can bring a claim in the courts where you live.

Contact

Stacklumen LLC, Lexington, Kentucky, United States. support@stacklumen.com. A person reads every message.