Terms of Use

Effective date: 14 June 2026

Changes:

• 1. Parties and agreement
  • Clarification about the parties in the agreement.
• 5.6 Analytics
  • Adds a clause that explains the analytics behavior on specific platforms.

The contents of this document may be subject to change without notice until launch.

This policy is written in English. In case of any translation, the English version prevails.

1. Parties and agreement

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) form a legally binding agreement between Collins Group Oy (Y-tunnus: 3325948-1), operator of Castcore (“Castcore”, “we”, “us”) and you (“Subscriber”, “you”). By creating an account or using the service you accept these Terms in full.

This document does not constitute as an agreement between Us and any third-party streaming platform. It also does not constitute as an agreement between the Subscriber and a third-party streaming platform.

2. Service description

Castcore provides a subscription-based podcast hosting platform including: audio transcoding and storage, RSS feed generation and delivery, the Castcore discovery index, creator analytics, and related tools accessible at castcore.fi and associated subdomains.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into contracts under Finnish law. By subscribing you confirm that this is the case.

4. Subscriptions and payment

4.1 Plans

Castcore offers subscription plans as described on the pricing page at the time of purchase. Plan features and prices are subject to change; changes to your active plan are communicated by email at least 30 days in advance.

4.2 Billing

Subscriptions are billed in advance, monthly or annually, through Stripe. All prices are displayed inclusive of VAT at the applicable EU rate for your country. Your subscription renews automatically unless cancelled before the next billing date.

4.3 VAT

Castcore applies EU VAT under the One-Stop-Shop scheme. VAT is charged at the rate applicable in your country of residence. Business subscribers with a valid EU VAT number may be eligible for the reverse-charge mechanism; VAT ID must be entered before checkout.

4.4 Refunds

We offer a full refund within 14 days of your initial purchase or annual renewal if you are not satisfied, provided you have not exceeded 500 MB of transcoded audio uploads during that period. Otherwise we will deduct the infrastructure costs related to your content from your payment. Monthly renewals (other than the first payment) are non-refundable. Refund requests must be sent to castcore@collinsgroup.fi.

4.5 Failure to pay

If a payment fails, we will retry over 7 days and notify you by email. If payment is not resolved within 14 days of the original due date, your account may be suspended. Content is retained for 60 days after suspension before permanent deletion.

5. Your content

5.1 Ownership

You retain full intellectual property rights to all audio, metadata, artwork, transcripts and other content you upload to Castcore (“Your Content”). These Terms do not transfer ownership of Your Content to us.

5.2 License to us

You grant Castcore a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, transcode, deliver, and index Your Content solely for the purpose of providing the service. This license terminates when you delete the content or close your account.

5.3 Responsibility for content

You are solely responsible for Your Content and its compliance with applicable law. By uploading content you warrant that you hold all necessary rights and permissions, including rights to music, third-party speech recordings, and any other protected material included in your episodes.

5.4 Harmful content

5.4.1 De-indexing

Castcore will not index content that advertises harmful content, such as false medical information, conspiracies that target specific groups and/or minorities or other content that could cause harm to others, or content that advertises harm on yourself. This does not apply to the RSS feed, but only episodes listed on the Castcore Index.

5.4.1.1 Exclusions

The clause on “harm to others” does not apply to content that describes historical events, or crimes that are discussed in an academic or journalistic manner.

The clause on “harm to self” does not apply to content that is considered describing real medical symptoms or phenomena in an academic manner.

Neither apply to the depiction of violent events that are central to the doctrine or history of a widely recognized religion, provided the content meets the exclusion criteria below.

Exclusions only apply if all of the following applies, will be enforced:

• the show is categorised as education, journalism, or documentary
• the issue is described in an academic or journalistic manner
• the described act is not glorified
• the content does not suggest the listener to follow the described acts

Suggestions on “harm on self”, will not be enforced:

• include crisis hotline contact information in your episode description in all official languages of the country where the majority of your audience resides
• mention the aforementioned contact information in the show, if possible

5.4.2 RSS feed

While we don’t moderate your RSS feed for aforementioned content, we strictly disallow you to advertise Castcore in any episode or content, if any of the episodes, or the show description, or other content, contains themes listed in §5.4.1.

5.4.2.1 Subscription requirement in case of harmful content on trial

If you produce content described in §5.4.1, and you’re on a trial, and thus would have a Castcore-branded feed (notably a text saying Distributed by Castcore), we will ask you to upgrade to any paid tier or stop distributing your content through a Castcore-branded trial feed.

5.5 Unlawful content

5.5.1 Takedown

Upon obtaining actual knowledge of unlawful content distributed through our platform, we do the following:

• record all of your data, including
  • all audio content
  • episode and show titles and descriptions including other metadata
  • your account activity
  • your payment information, including
    • your full name
    • your payment method
• make the feed and the show in the Castcore Index unavailable
• report you
  • to
    • the authorities in Finland
    • in Your Country of Residence, if within the EU/EEA
  • with the aforementioned data

Unlawful content is material considered illegal in any EU/EEA member state, Switzerland, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, or your country of residence.

5.5.2 Appeal

You may appeal a §5.5 takedown if you believe the content does not constitute unlawful material as defined above. Appeals must be submitted to castcore@collinsgroup.fi within 14 days of the takedown. We will respond within 5 business days. Appeals are not available for content involving CSAM or terrorism, where takedowns are final and immediate. Where the laws of your country of residence conflict with the above, the laws of Finland and the EU/EEA and the named countries prevail. Where the laws of the United States of America or Canada conflict with EU/EEA law, EU/EEA law prevails. Where the laws of other EU/EEA member states conflict with Finnish legislation, Finnish legislation prevails, except for content that’s not targeted at a Finnish audience. All mentioned legislations mean the parts of the legislation that define illegal or harmful content.

5.6 Analytics

Certain distribution platforms, such as Spotify, may not provide accurate analytics, report them in a timely manner, or report them at all. Additionally, these platforms may bypass our content delivery network, resulting in no visibility into consumption within those specific applications. We never inflate your analytics to make up for this.

6. Acceptable use

You may not use Castcore to publish or distribute content that:

• Infringes any intellectual property, privacy, or other rights of a third party.
• Contains or incites illegal discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, age, disability or sexual orientation.
• Constitutes hate speech, threats of violence, or targeted harassment.
• Promotes or glorifies terrorist activity or organised crime.
• Contains child sexual abuse material or any sexual content involving minors.
• Constitutes deliberate disinformation intended to cause harm.
• Violates Finnish law (Rikoslaki 39/1889) or EU law applicable in Finland.

You also may not use Castcore to:

• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the service or another subscriber’s account.
• Introduce malware or conduct denial-of-service attacks.
• Circumvent subscription limits or access controls by technical means.
• Resell or sublicense access to the service without our written consent.

7. Content moderation and the Castcore Index

Castcore moderates all content listed in the Castcore discovery index for compliance with these Terms. RSS feeds are not moderated and remain available to your subscribers at all times regardless of index status.

We may de-list or remove content from the index if it violates these Terms. For paid subscribers, de-listing decisions are subject to human review. You may appeal an index decision by contacting castcore@collinsgroup.fi; we will respond within 5 business days.

In cases of serious legal violations (§5.5) we remove content and terminate the account immediately without notice.

8. Service availability

We aim for high availability but do not guarantee any specific uptime level. Planned maintenance will be announced in advance where feasible. We are not liable for temporary unavailability caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control, including third-party infrastructure failures, acts of God, or government orders. Historical uptime does not guarantee future uptime, unless we specifically agree to an SLA with a legal contract.

8.1 Use of US-based services

Castcore’s storage and content delivery infrastructure is fully European (see Privacy Policy §6). Some supporting services — compute, build pipeline, DNS — are provided by US-based companies. Audio data and podcast feeds are never routed through or stored on US infrastructure.

We maintain contingency plans for replacing any US-based service should it become unavailable. Unavailability of a US-based supporting service, whether due to commercial, regulatory, or political circumstances, does not constitute a breach of any service level commitment.

9. Termination

9.1 By you

You may cancel your subscription at any time from the account settings. Cancellation stops future billing; access continues until the end of the current paid period. Your content is deleted 30 days after cancellation unless you export it first.

9.2 By us

We may suspend or terminate your account if you materially breach these Terms. For breaches that are capable of remedy, we will give you 14 days’ written notice and an opportunity to cure. For serious breaches (illegal content, fraud, repeated violations) we may act immediately. In scenarios involving de-indexing under §5.4, or other measures under §5.5, §6, and §7, you are not eligible for a refund.

On termination initiated by us without cause, you receive a pro-rata refund of any prepaid subscription period.

10. Intellectual property of the service

All software, design, trademarks, and other materials that form part of the Castcore platform are owned by Collins Group Oy or its licensors and are protected by Finnish and EU intellectual property law. Nothing in these Terms grants you any rights in the platform itself.

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by Finnish law:

• Castcore is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, including loss of revenue, data, or business opportunity.
• Our total aggregate liability for any claim arising out of these Terms is limited to the subscription fees you paid in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Nothing in this section limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any other liability that cannot be excluded under mandatory Finnish law.

Castcore is not a backup storage service, and should not be treated as such.

12. Warranties

The service is provided “as is”. We disclaim all warranties not required by mandatory Finnish consumer protection law (Kuluttajansuojalaki 38/1978), including implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Subscribers who qualify as consumers under Finnish law retain all rights granted by mandatory consumer protection legislation; this clause does not limit those rights.

13. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Finland. Any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms shall first be referred to good-faith negotiation. If not resolved within 30 days, the dispute shall be submitted to the District Court of Helsinki (Helsingin käräjäoikeus) as the court of first instance, unless mandatory EU consumer law provides otherwise.

Finnish consumers may also refer disputes to the Consumer Disputes Board (Kuluttajariitalautakunta, kuluttajariita.fi) free of charge.

None of these Terms apply when they are in clear conflict with Finnish legislation.

14. Changes to these Terms

We will notify subscribers by email at least 30 days before material changes take effect. Continued use of the service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not accept the changes, you may cancel before the effective date and receive a pro-rata refund of any prepaid period.

15. Contact

Collins Group Oy castcore@collinsgroup.fi