Terms of Service.

1. What Buy The Time is

Buy The Time is a novelty registry. Each minute of recorded human history — measured in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) — can be claimed by exactly one owner, who attaches a message, a photo, a video, a voice note, and a link to a permanent public record. The platform is a creative and recreational project. It is not a financial product, an investment, a securities exchange, or a marketplace for the resale of time.

2. What you are purchasing

You are purchasing a permanent record on this platform. You are not purchasing time, physical property, or any cosmological rights. The record is an entry in our database that associates a specific UTC minute with content you provide. It is publicly visible and accessible to everyone. Once a minute is claimed and paid for, the association between that minute and your content is permanent and cannot be transferred, resold, or auctioned through this platform.

The minute itself — as a unit of time — belongs to no one and cannot be owned. What you own is the record, not the minute.

3. Public visibility

Every claimed minute is published on a public wall of time. Your display name, your message, and any media you upload will be visible to any visitor of the site, now and for the lifetime of the project. There is no private mode for claimed minutes. If you need privacy, do not claim a minute.

4. One minute, one owner

Each UTC minute may be claimed by exactly one owner. Once a minute is claimed and paid for, it cannot be claimed by anyone else. Minutes that are reserved out of respect — such as those marking profound historical tragedies — are not available for purchase under any circumstances.

5. Your content

You are responsible for the content you submit. By claiming a minute, you confirm that you hold the rights to any photo, video, or audio you upload and that your message and link do not infringe the rights of any third party. You grant Buy The Time a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free licence to display, reproduce, and make accessible the content you submit as part of the public record.

We will not accept content that is unlawful, hateful, harassing, sexually explicit, or that depicts or promotes violence. We reserve the right to remove content that violates these standards while preserving the record as a claimed minute.

6. AI-generated context

When you opt into AI-generated historical context, that text is produced by a language model and may contain historical inaccuracies. It is labelled "Generated by AI" and accompanied by the notice: "Generated by AI, may contain historical inaccuracies. Corrections welcome." You acknowledge that AI context is supplementary and not a factual source.

7. Payments and refunds

Prices are listed in US dollars. All payments are processed through our payment provider in test or live mode as indicated at checkout. A claim is final only after payment is confirmed. Minutes held as an unpaid reservation for more than 30 minutes are released back to the public.

If your purchase was under $50 and you request a refund within 24 hours of payment, we will refund the amount and release the minute. After 24 hours, or for purchases of $50 and above, all sales are final. Refunds do not entitle you to retain the record.

8. Right to be forgotten

Under the GDPR and similar data protection laws, you may request that we erase your personal data. We will remove your display name, message, link, and all uploaded media from the record. The minute itself remains claimed — as an anonymised, content-less placeholder — so that the continuity of the timeline is preserved for all visitors. To exercise this right, contact privacy@buythetime.co.

9. No warranty

The platform is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability, permanent data retention, or compatibility with any future device or browser. We will make reasonable efforts to preserve records for the lifetime of the project, but we cannot guarantee permanence in the event of circumstances beyond our control.

10. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Buy The Time and its operators shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from your use of the platform or your inability to claim, view, or modify a record.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the platform evolves. We will revise the date above and, for material changes, notify existing owners by email. Continued use of the platform after a change constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms can be sent to hello@buythetime.co.