Terms of Service

1 · Who we are

Federal Index LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company ("Federal Index", "we", "us"), is an independent, privately operated service providing regulatory monitoring software. These Terms govern your organisation's use of the Federal Index application and services (the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service, the organisation you represent ("you", "Customer") agrees to these Terms, and you confirm you are authorised to bind it.

2 · What the service is

The Service monitors publicly published government information, interprets what has changed, and routes role-relevant summaries to the people on your account, each with a citation to the primary source. The specific government bodies we monitor are defined in the Coverage Commitment, which forms part of these Terms.

2A · Legal basis for what we republish

This section states the law that lets us do this. Every authority below links to its primary source so you can check it yourself — which is the same standard we hold ourselves to everywhere else in the product.

The material is free to republish

Copyright protection is not available for any work of the United States Government — 17 U.S.C. § 105(a), on the definition at 17 U.S.C. § 101. Beyond the federal government, the government edicts doctrine holds that copyright does not vest in works created by judges and legislators in the course of their duties: Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., 590 U.S. 255 (2020) (5–4), building on Banks v. Manchester, 128 U.S. 244 (1888) and Wheaton v. Peters, 33 U.S. (8 Pet.) 591 (1834). That is the whole basis on which state statutes and judicial opinions reach you here.

What publication actually does

We track the material the government is required to publish under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. § 553) and 5 U.S.C. § 552, and we record the publication facts that determine when an obligation attaches to you.

Those facts are specific, and 44 U.S.C. § 1507 is precise about which of them does what. Filing a document with the Office of the Federal Register, and making a copy available for public inspection, is what makes it valid against a person who had no actual knowledge of it; filing is also what "is sufficient to give notice of the contents of the document to a person subject to or affected by it." Publication then creates a rebuttable presumption that the document was duly issued, prescribed, or promulgated. We track filing and publication as separate events for that reason.

Once codified, the contents of the Code of Federal Regulations are prima facie evidence both of the text of the documents and "of the fact that they are in effect on and after the date of publication" — 44 U.S.C. § 1510(e). That second half is why effective dates carry the weight they do in the Service.

Standards incorporated by reference

Some regulations do not carry their own requirements; they incorporate a privately drafted standard by reference under 1 C.F.R. pt. 51. That incorporated text carries the force of law while the standards body still asserts copyright in it, and the courts have resolved only the non-commercial half of that tension — ASTM v. Public.Resource.Org, 82 F.4th 1262 (D.C. Cir. 2023).

So our rule is a product rule, not a clause we drafted around: we identify the standard, its edition, and the provision that incorporates it, and we link you to the incorporating regulation. We do not reproduce the text of privately drafted standards. Where your obligation lives inside a standard, we point you to it and you obtain it from the publisher.

The official version governs

3 · What the service is not

4 · Coverage & the growth commitment

Our Coverage Commitment is incorporated into these Terms by reference and is binding on us. It states exactly which levels of government your subscription covers, the published list of covered counties, and the schedule on which further jurisdictions are added.

4.1 Coverage expands with the business

You acknowledge and we affirm that Federal Index's coverage is not static. Our ingestion capacity grows as the business grows, and coverage progresses over time. Expansion is prioritised toward the jurisdictions our customers operate in, and reviewed by a human before any new level of government goes live.

4.2 The shape of the commitment

What is guaranteed is accuracy and notice: the published coverage is accurate, and every change to it is disclosed to you under §5. Expansion dates and rates are roadmap, not contract — we hold ourselves to what we can be held to in writing.

4.3 We will not oversell

It is our policy that no authorised written statement by Federal Index — our marketing pages, the Service, and written sales materials — asserts coverage of a jurisdiction not then within the Coverage Commitment. If you identify any statement of ours that overstates coverage in a way that is material to your decision, tell us; we will correct it promptly, and correction is your exclusive remedy for the overstatement itself. This does not limit the Coverage Commitment, which remains binding.

5 · Notification obligation

We will notify you in writing, at no charge and without request, when:

• every 200 counties are added to the covered county list;
• a new level of government enters coverage;
• a state's administrative code becomes complete for a state you operate in;
• we become aware that coverage has been reduced, for any reason.

Notice is sent to the most senior person in each of these functions, as identified on your account:

• the founder or chief executive;
• the general counsel or head of legal;
• the chief operating officer or equivalent operational lead.

You may add recipients at any time. Every notice states what was added by name, what remains outside coverage, and the effective date. It is your responsibility to keep those contacts current on your account.

6 · Accounts & seats

• Accounts are issued to organisations. Each person receives their own individual credentials.
• Credentials may not be shared. Shared logins defeat the role isolation that keeps each person's view appropriate to their job, and we may suspend seats we believe are shared.
• Your dashboards are configured from the industry classification and footprint you provide. If that information is wrong, the configuration will be wrong — you are responsible for its accuracy.
• You are responsible for activity under your account and for notifying us promptly of any unauthorised access.

7 · Your data

• Ownership. You retain all rights to the information you provide.
• Use. We use it to operate the Service for you — configuring your workspace, routing relevant obligations to your people, and supporting you.
• Isolation. Tenant separation is enforced at the database layer, not merely in the interface.
• Sub-processors. We use third-party infrastructure and AI providers to operate the Service. Your content may be processed by them solely to deliver it to you.
• Export & deletion. You may request an export or deletion of your data at any time. On termination, we delete it within a reasonable period except where retention is legally required.

7.1 Security incidents

If we confirm a security incident that has compromised your personal data, we will notify your account's administrative and legal contacts without undue delay, and in any event within 72 hours of confirmation, describing what we know, what we are doing, and what we recommend you do. We maintain reasonable, industry-appropriate safeguards, described in our Privacy Policy.

8 · How we use AI

The Service uses large language models to read and interpret government documents. You should understand three things about that:

• Every claim is cited. Every output carries a citation to the primary source, so you can verify it — you are always one click from the underlying document.
• Verification is yours. Automated interpretation can be wrong. The citation exists so you can check it, and for consequential decisions you should.
• Your data is not training data. We do not use your content to train publicly available models.

9 · Beta status

The Service is in beta. It is a working product, not a finished one. Features may change, coverage is expanding (§4), and defects are more likely than in a mature product. Beta pricing reflects that. If the Service is not suitable for you today, we would rather tell you than sell to you.

10 · Fees

• Fees are quoted per organisation, computed from your footprint — states, agencies, named users, legal entities — adjusted for your sector.
• Beta fees are fixed for your initial term. We will not raise them mid-term.
• Fees are billed in advance and are non-refundable except as required by law or as stated in §§15–16.
• Failure to pay may result in suspension after reasonable notice.

11 · Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• resell, sublicense, or provide the Service to third parties without our written agreement;
• scrape, bulk-export, or systematically extract the Service's output to build a competing dataset;
• share credentials, or circumvent role or tenant boundaries;
• use the Service to break the law or to help anyone else do so.

12 · Intellectual property

Government documents are public domain — we claim nothing over them. We do own the Service: our software, interpretations, classifications, routing logic, and interface. You get a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use it during your term. Feedback you send us we may use freely.

13 · Warranties & disclaimers

We warrant that we will provide the Service with reasonable skill and care, and that the Coverage Commitment is accurate in all material respects as of its stated effective date. We do not warrant that it remains exhaustive between updates — coverage is a moving target by design, which is why §5 binds us to keep it current and to disclose changes under §5 rather than to freeze it.

Otherwise, and to the maximum extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is". We disclaim all other warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that it will identify every obligation applicable to you — see §3 and Coverage Commitment §8.

14 · Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits or revenues.

Our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to these Terms will not exceed the fees you paid us in the twelve months preceding the claim. Any refund we owe you under §15 or §16 is in addition to, and not counted against, this cap.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for fraud or wilful misconduct.

15 · Term & termination

• These Terms run for your subscription term and renew as agreed.
• During beta, either party may terminate on 30 days' written notice, for any reason. If we terminate without cause mid-term, we refund the unused portion of prepaid fees.
• Either party may terminate immediately for material breach not cured within 30 days.
• Sections 2A, 3, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17 survive termination, as does any accrued refund obligation.

16 · Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms. For material changes we give at least 30 days' notice to your account's administrative contacts, and if you object you may terminate before they take effect and receive a pro-rata refund of prepaid fees. Coverage changes are the exception to the advance-notice rule: coverage expands and, occasionally, contracts in real time, so changes to the Coverage Commitment are governed by the prompt-notice obligation in §5 rather than by 30 days' advance notice, since a government's own publishing decisions are made without warning to us. Where a change is within our control, we will still give advance notice wherever practicable.

16A · How your price changes

Coverage we add does not change your price. When Federal Index brings new counties, a new level of government, or new sources into the Service, those reach your account at no additional charge. That expansion is delivery of the Coverage Commitment you already bought, not a separate product.

Your fee is recomputed for one reason: a change in your own footprint — the states, federal agencies, legal entities, or named users in your account. That recomputation uses the same basis your original quote came from. We show you the full calculation of your own fee in writing — every input, every line, and the figure each one contributes — during onboarding and again whenever it changes, so you can check any change we make against the quote you accepted.

Your beta rate is locked for twelve months from the date your service becomes available to you — not from signature. If onboarding or availability is delayed, the lock does not begin running until you can actually use what you bought. At renewal, any adjustment is capped at the lesser of CPI or five percent (5%), and no renewal will raise your fee merely because a year has passed. We will give you ninety (90) days' written notice before any change to your rate takes effect, sent to your billing and administrative contacts, and you may terminate before it takes effect under §16. Founding members retain a ten percent (10%) discount, applied to the rate that would otherwise apply to their footprint, for as long as their subscription runs without interruption.

If your footprint shrinks, your fee goes down at the next billing cycle — with no notice period and no waiting. The advance-notice window in this section protects you against increases; it never delays a reduction. Jurisdictions you remove stop being monitored on that same date.

17 · Governing law & general terms

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, where Federal Index LLC is organised, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Wyoming.

17.1 Order of precedence

If these Terms, the Coverage Commitment, and the Privacy Policy conflict, these Terms control, then the Coverage Commitment, then the Privacy Policy — except that on data-protection matters the Privacy Policy (and any executed Data Processing Agreement) controls.

17.2 Force majeure

Neither party is liable for failure or delay caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including acts of government, changes in law, a government's failure to publish, outages of third-party infrastructure, or force majeure. A government ceasing to publish a source is such an event and is a coverage change under §5, not a breach.

17.3 Miscellaneous

These Terms, with the documents they incorporate, are the entire agreement between us on their subject matter and supersede prior discussions. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Neither party may assign these Terms without the other's consent, except to a successor in a merger or sale of substantially all assets. A waiver on one occasion is not a waiver on another.

18 · Contact

Questions about these Terms, or a claim that something we published overstates our coverage: hello@federalindex.us